You know a marketing campaign is successful when people still remember the slogan after a long time. When you mention Chin Huat Live Seafood, chances are, people will think of the slogan “lobster bigger than little girl” used in their television advertisement years ago.

Chin Huat Live Seafood at Sunset Way, is of course, more than just lobsters. Besides the typical Sri Lanka crabs, they offer a huge variety of seafood and popular zichar dishes.

The restaurant was pretty full when we went on a weekday for dinner. As it was just a casual family dinner, we decided to play safe and order the usual stuff like chilli crabs, deep-fried chicken, and sambal kangkong.

Everyone knows that Chilli Crab is one of the must-eats in Singapore. But to be honest, I have a love-hate relationship with it.

On one hand, I really love dipping the deep-fried mantou into the savoury-sweet chilli gravy. On the other, the amount of work – from cracking a shell that’s as hard as a bulletproof tank; to trying to coax the meat out from the deep end of the shell – doesn’t justify all the work for so little flesh.

More than anything, I am a lazy person who doesn’t like to dirty his hands just for crabs. But fine, I did it anyway. Who can resist the temptation of Chilli crab with deep-fried mantou?

As much as I’d love to try Chin Huat’s signature Golden Sauce Crab, we only had room for another crab and we went for the Salted Egg Yolk Crab ($43 per kg). It was okay. I felt that the salted egg yolk crab would be better if there was more gravy.

I was trying very hard to concentrate when the Dong Po Rou ($16) arrived. They were magnificent – just look at the picture above!

The others commented that the sauce was a little too sweet, but I thought that it was just nice. Then again, I have a really sweet tooth, so don’t take my word for it.

The Deep-fried Crispy Chicken ($12 for half) was equally good-looking. It’s really difficult to breathe when you have Chilli Crab, Salted Egg Yolk Crab, Dong Po Meat, and Crispy Chicken on the table. I felt as though I was in a room surrounded by gorgeous babes.

Chin Huat Live Seafood at Sunset Way serves competent food at reasonable prices. Besides the usual zi char, they also have other unique dishes like Wagyu Beef on the menu. It is a great place to have live seafood if you are staying in the west of Singapore.

Singapore Food Blog Review
Chin Huat Live Seafood
105 Clementi Street 12
#01-30 Sunset Way Singapore
Tel: +65 6775 7348

For more recommendations, read my Guide to Sunset Way Restaurants

“Where can you find the cheapest crabs in Singapore?”

Irvin’s Seafood Cze Char at River Valley road is probably the place to go. Most of the crabs on the menu – like black pepper crab, chilli crab, butter crab – are available for just $19.9. There’s a catch of course. The crabs are much smaller, around 500g each.

Personally, I thought that it was a good tactic to attract customers. But taste-wise, the crabs that we had were nothing special. Irvin’s Seafood is only worth a try if you a) are on a budget b) want to try a variety of crabs.

The sauce of the Chilli Crab ($19.9 for 500g/$29.9 for 800g/$39.9 for 1kg) was a little too starchy and there was a rather strong vinegar taste to it.

The Salted Egg Yolk Crab ($23.9 for 500g/$33.9 for 800g/$42 for 1kg) was supposed to be Irvin’s seafood signature crab. But again, we didn’t really enjoy it as we felt that the sauce was too buttery and lacked the fragrance of the salted egg yolk.

The Shrimp Paste Chicken ($12.8 for small) was just fine – I mean, deep-fried food always taste good. It’s slightly pricier than normal cze char places, though.

Hot plate black pepper deer meat ($18.8)

Perhaps Irvin’s was having a slightly bad day. Perhaps the crabs were cooked exactly as they were supposed to, and it was because we didn’t know how to appreciate them.

Would I go back to Irvin’s Seafood restaurant again? I don’t think so. While the prices of the crabs are fairly attractive, we didn’t really like them. If I were in the River Valley area, I’d probably head to Spize, Five Star Chicken Rice or Boon Tong Kee for supper.

Singapore Food Blog Review
Irvin’s Seafood Restaurant
397 River Valley Road
Tel: +65 6836 5020
Daily: 11am – 1am

Clementi has lots of good food. Besides the newly opened Clementi Mall, there is also the popular Clementi Food Centre and various coffee shops.

I recently had Tze Char at Ban Tong Seafood restaurant at Clementi ave 5, which is a few minutes walk from the train station. The food is generally good, and prices are what you’d expect from a typical tze char place.

We shared five dishes between the four of us, and we were so full after finishing everything.

Whilst Ban Tong Tze Char did a good job with its Prawn Paste Chicken (Har Cheong Kai), my favourite is still the one from Holland Village XO Fish-head Bee Hoon. There was a slight twist to the ubiquitous Hotplate Beancurd ($10) – it was done spicy. Even though I was perspiring all the way, I loved the dish!

I thought the Sweet & Sour Pork ($6) was only average. But at just six dollars for the small portion, it is certainly one of the cheapest amongst the tze char places in Singapore.

The highlight of the meal at Ban Tong Seafood Restaurant is definitely the Cereal Crayfish ($16 for small). What’s there not to like about de-shelled crayfish that is generously showered with cereal?

Which is your favourite Tze Char Stall in Singapore? Give me some recommendations!

Singapore Food Blog Review
Ban Tong Seafood Restaurant
Blk 378 Clementi Ave 5 #01-334
Tel: +65 9047 9428

A few weeks ago, I received an email from a reader, telling me about Master Crab Seafood Restaurant, a cze char place in Ghim Moh near De Burg burgers. The title of her email was: “best crabs in Singapore“. I think that pretty much sums it up.

Anyway, I could not stop thinking about the yummy crabs, so a few days later, I brought my family to Master Crab for dinner. Apparently, Master Crab Seafood Restaurant also has branches in Choa Chu Kang (Sunshine Place), Compassvale, and Punggol.

I was a little alarmed when my family wanted to have the Black Pepper Crabs as we had Chilli crabs recently. Luckily, I managed to convince them that it is a must to try the famous Singapore Chilli Crab since it was our first time at this crab restaurant.

Sad to say, Master Crab’s Chilli Crab ($48/kg nett) was lackluster – I could not quite put a finger to it, but the chilli gravy was kind of weird.

If you go to Master Crab Seafood Restaurant, order their Salted Egg Yolk Crab instead. Covered with a golden-yellow sauce, the Salted Egg Yolk Crab was magnificent. The sauce, in particular, was rich and very tasty. I am certainly not the first person, nor the last, to sing its praises.

It’s been said before, and I shall say it again: crab prices are getting ridiculous in zi char restaurants. I understand why seafood restaurants like Seafood Paradise and NoSignBoard need to charge $40ish/kg as they are paying higher rentals. But it does not make sense to me why Zi Char places are charging the same amount.

Master Crab’s har cheong kai ($8) was not too bad. It had a thicker coat of flour which gave it a nice crispy skin.

We wanted to order something different from what we usually have, so we went for the Deep-fried Youtiao Fritter ($8), which was run-of-the-mill.

The Scallop Asparagus ($15) was nothing like the menu’s photo, it only had a few tiny scallops. For that kind of price, I would rather order two different vegetable dishes.

Master Crab Seafood Restaurant, like the name suggests, is a good cze char place to go for their crabs. The other dishes are pretty standard, nothing outstanding. The other signature crabs on the menu are: crab bee hoon and stewed crab with vermicelli.

Singapore Food Blog Review
Master Crab Seafood Restaurant
Blk 19 Ghim Moh Road #01-229
Tel: +65 6314 1868

Master Crab Compassvale
Blk 277 Compassvale Link #01-13
Tel: +65 6555 6515

Master Crab Choa Chu Kang
Blk 475 Choa Chu Kang Ave 3 #01-31
Tel: +65 6764 9487

Master Crab Punggol Field
Blk 108 Punggol Field #01-01
Tel: +65 6425 8079

Master Crab Punggol Drive
Blk 639 Punggol Drive #01-07
Tel: +65 6425 9435

Sin Hoi Sai (also known as Sin Hoi San) Eating House has been around for ages and they hold a special place in my heart. When I was a kid, my uncle used to bring me there for dinner every month.

As the years went by, we stopped going there for zi char, but I am really happy to see that Sin Hoi Sai has been doing well. Ask any foodie where you can find a popular Zi Char Restaurant for supper and invariably, the name Sin Hoi Sai at Tiong Bahru will prop up.

Back in the days, we used to eat in the alley under the open sky. They have since expanded to the shop house opposite, increasing their seating capacity.

Even though the standard of the food is still decent, the prices have gone up by quite a bit. It really depends on your perspective though. If you see Sin Hoi San as a Chinese Seafood Restaurant, then their prices are probably quite acceptable.

But for me, Sin Hoi San will always be that place where I had my steamed fish at the “al fresco” area. I feel that their current prices are rather steep for a Zi Char Stall.

Considering the fact that Sin Hoi Sai used to be a no-frills Zi Char place and it now provides air-conditioning in the shop house, I can understand the increase in price. We are also paying more as they are operating throughout the night.

Will I go back to Sin Hoi San Seafood Restaurant? Yes, but only if I am looking for a late night supper place. Given that there are plenty of good cze char places that I have yet to explore, I am not in a hurry to come back.

I am sorry Sin Hoi Sai, you’ve changed. It’s not me, it’s you.

Singapore Food Blog Review
Sin Hoi Sai Eating House
55 Tiong Bahru Road (Opposite Link Hotel)
#01-59 Singapore
Tel: +65 6223 0810
Daily: 5pm – 5am

187 East Coast Road Singapore
Tel: +65 6440 6956
Daily: 5pm – 4am

Keng Eng Kee Seafood restaurant at Alexandra Village used to be my family’s favourite Cze Char place. It has been a while since our last visit here so we decided to drop by for dinner last week.

Besides the good food, some of the regulars probably go to Keng Eng Kee Seafood because the Zi Char Stall has an air-conditioned dining area just opposite the coffee shop.

It was a tough call between the Chilli Crab and Salted Egg Yolk Crab, but eventually we went for the latter as it was apparently a signature dish of Keng Eng Kee restaurant.

The sauce of the Salted Egg Yolk Crab ($39/kg) was very thick, and had a subtle spicy taste. I probably had better salted egg yolk crabs elsewhere before, but this was pretty decent.

We wanted to have Hot Plate Beancurd but it was not available on Keng Eng Kee’s menu. But it was not so bad since the Claypot Beancurd was a good replacement.

The Sambal Kangkong was well done. It was spicy but not to the extent of being tongue-numbing. The small portion comes at $6.

I was quite disappointed that Sweet and Sour Pork is also not available under the Pork section. But there are interesting options like Golden Pork Ribs, Coffee Pork Ribs and Claypot Pork Liver to choose from. We were intriguied by the Claypot Pork Liver as not many cze char restaurants serve it.

Just look at all the oil used to cook the liver! The Claypot Pork Liver ($8) is definitely not for the faint-hearted. But it sure was tasty.

Prawn Paste Chicken is a very popular zi char dish and there are different variations for it. I’ve had very good Har Cheong Kai before, so I was actually looking forward to the ones at Keng Eng Kee. Unfortunately, the Har Cheong Kai ($8) here was quite disappointing: the chicken was very small, and I felt that the shrimp paste marination was rather weak. I’d probably go for the Crispy Roasted Chicken or the Marmite Chicken next time.

I was quite impressed with the waiting time at Keng Eng Kee Seafood. The Cze Char restaurant was almost packed when we were there for dinner, yet they managed to serve most of the dishes within 10 minutes.

The food at Keng Eng Kee Seafood was pretty good and it was a bonus that everything came quickly. Prices are what you’d expect from a typical zhi char place, but the portions served were slightly smaller.

Singapore Food Blog Review
Keng Eng Kee Seafood
Blk 124 Bukit Merah Lane 1
#01-136 Alexandra Village Singapore
Tel: +65 6272 1038

Operating Hours:
Daily: 11.30am – 2pm, 5pm – 11pm

Ming Kee Live Seafood is tucked among a busy row of restaurants and eateries on Macpherson Road, and they are known for serving good and fresh seafood at affordable prices. Singapore is famous for our Chilli crabs and most people usually bring their overseas friends to popular places like No SignBoard, Palm Beach, Red House or Jumbo Seafood restaurant.

I have been putting off my visit to Ming Kee Seafood Restaurant as it is not very accessible. But my excuse came when my friends from New York were in town, and thankfully the food did not disappoint.

Many Singapore Food Blogs had written on Ming Kee Live Seafood and the Guinness Pork Ribs was highly recommended. Even though I have never had anything similar before, I must say Ming Kee’s interpretation of the Guinness Pork Ribs was excellent. It had a good proportion of fats to lean meat, and every bite was so good.

Almost every table at Ming Kee Restaurant that night went for the signature Triple Cooked Bee Hoon Crab, but we wanted to show the famous Singapore Chilli Crabs to our New York friends, so we gave that a miss.

Like always, deep fried man tou and chilli gravy are the best couple together. All my friends thought that the Chilli crabs ($58.5, 1kg/$45) were exceptionally good, but I felt otherwise, they were good but not great.

Some of the items that we had at Ming Kee were the Stir-fried bean-sprout ($8) with salted fish, and Sambal kangkong ($8). The vegetables were very well-done, and we particularly enjoyed the bean-sprout.

We were quite full by the time the Sea Grouper came ($114, 100g/$6) came to our table.

Steamed Hong Kong-Style, the whopping 1.9kg grouper was amazingly fresh, and meaty. I do feel that it is a little pricey to pay over a hundred bucks for a fish. After-all, you can get more crab and prawns for the same amount of money. However, if you are a big fan of fish, it is worthwhile to order it from Ming Kee Live Seafood.

Ming Kee Live Seafood is an excellent place for fresh seafood, and the prices are pretty reasonable. I will definitely bring my family back to try their other dishes.

Speaking of which, I need some recommendations for good Zi Char restaurants in Singapore, please leave a comment and share with us.

Singapore Food Restaurant Review
Ming kee Live Seafood
556 Macpherson Road Singapore
Tel: +65 6747 4075
// Closed during Chinese New Year from 3rd – 8th Feb 2011

Reading Food Blogs and watching food shows are among my favorite pastimes. Food blogs with delicious photos and intriguing words have the ability to suck me in for hours, while food shows are somewhat more direct – they make me hungry instantly. I’m sure many of you are currently hooked to Sizzling Woks, the popular food show on the best zhi char eating places in Singapore.

I’m not surprised because I get many requests to blog more about cheap and good Zhi Char in Singapore all the time. Today, I will like to share about one of the Zhi Char restaurants in Singapore that my family always go to: B.K Fortune Seafood Steamboat restaurant. They are located just a few steps away from Bar Bar Black Sheep along Bukit Timah road (towards King Albert Park direction after Sixth Avenue).

Unlike some Zi Char Stalls in neighbourhood coffee shops that charged $40/kg for crabs (prices that are comparable to Seafood restaurants), the ones at B.K Fortune Seafood restaurant are only $30/kg and we paid $56 for two huge Salted Egg Yolk Crabs.

Crabs do not really appeal to lazy people like me. It’s a dish that requires a lot of effort, but offers very little return (in terms of meat) – so you can understand why I don’t really like crabs. But when we eat out at Seafood restaurants in Singapore, I will always go for either the famous Singapore Chilli crab, or the Salted Egg Yolk Crab. And if there’s one thing you should know, Fortune Seafood Restaurant’s Salted Egg yolk Crabs are gorgeous! I’m not going into details about how they taste like, but believe me – they are fingers-licking good!

This isn’t a very pretty photo, but Fortune Seafood’s signature Assam Curry Fish Head ($15) is a must-order dish. The flavours hit you in different waves, first the spicy-and-sourish assam gravy, second the smooth and fresh taste of the fish head – I love it! The assam gravy was so good that I filled my bowl of rice with it.

Amongst the other dishes that we had at Fortune Seafood Steamboat Restaurant, the Sweet & Sour Pork ($10) was exceptionally ordinary – there was too much fatty meat and it didn’t have the right bite.

When eating at Zi Char restaurants, we would usually order the crowd-favorite Hot Plate tofu. But this time round, we decided to throw caution out of the window and went for their Mango Sauce Fried Tofu ($8). It was a disaster. The sauce accompanying the tofu was done the Thai-mango-salad way, but the whole dish was just deep fried tofu (bland and slightly dry) with the dressing. Give me hot plate tofu any day please.

If you have difficulty finding the place, they are located directly opposite the old turf city. Otherwise, look out for the former premises of Brewerkz. Now, it’s your turn to share with me a good zhi char stall in Singapore.

// The name of the restaurant is Forture Seafood Restaurant with a ‘R’, but it seems that there is a common spelling mistake online where everyone calls it Fortune Seafood.

Singapore Food Restaurant Review
B.K Fortune Seafood Restaurant
887 Bukit Timah Road Singapore
Tel: +65 6469 5957
Opening hours: 11am – 2.30pm
Dinner: 5pm – 11.30pm Daily

Oh our love-hate relationship with cravings. It is almost impossible to ignore them, and they always sneak in and catch us unaware during the middle of the night. Sometimes, we don’t really have a choice but to satisfy it.

I was craving for Chilli Crabs a while back, and decided on Seafood Paradise Restaurant at Singapore Flyer since all of us have never been there before.

The Paradise Group of Restaurants have been doing very well recently. Other than their original Seafood Paradise at Defu Lane, and the fine dining flagship restaurant Taste Paradise, they have added Paradise Inn and with the latest being Paradise Dynasty at Ion Orchard.

You know what is the best part about being a food blogger? I get to decide the place, as well as the dishes to order. If you have been reading my blog for some time, you will know that I’m a big fan of chilli crabs ($4.4/100g). Naturally, I persuaded the rest to avoid the pepper crab and go for the deep fried man tou and chilli gravy instead.

Rule number one when it comes to ordering Chilli crab:

Always, always specify the size of the crab to the waitress. Unfortunately, we were too hungry that night and actually forgot to mention that. The poor crab that arrived on our table was undersized – it was just slightly more than 700g, which was barely enough to satisfy our cravings. But everything was forgiven when we dipped the huge deep fried buns into the gravy. There was silence for a few minutes as everyone focused on the crab (& the mantou with chilli gravy).

Another must-order is the Crisp-fried Crystal Prawns with salted egg yolk ($16/small). The one that we ordered only had 5 small prawns, please go for the medium portion ($24) at least.

Hotplate Tofu ($10/small) is one of my favorite dishes when I dine at Zi Char or seafood restaurants. Don’t we all love the sizzling sound coming from the hotplate? The tofu, the minced meat, and the egg tasted perfect together! The one here had additional preserved cai xin to give it a different twist.

Whenever Sweet & Sour Pork appears during dinner, everyone will always turn their head towards me. It is as though there’s the words ‘sweet and sour pork’ written on my forehead.

Other than the rather small portion, I’d think that Seafood Paradise’s rendition was very close to the one that I have been looking for. In short, it’s one of the best Sweet & Sour Pork in Singapore that I had in recent times. With the pineapple and lychee adding to the sweetness, the pork was extremely crispy yet not too oily. Every bite was so good! I managed to get a few extra helpings while everyone was busy with the crabs.

Looking for a Chinese Seafood restaurant to bring your overseas friends for our famous Singapore Chili Crab? Check out Seafood Paradise Restaurant next time!

Which is your favorite seafood restaurant for Chilli crabs?

Restaurant Review
Seafood Paradise Restaurant
30 Raffles Avenue #01-01
Singapore Flyer Singapore
Tel: +65 6336 5101

91 Defu Lane
10 Swee Hin Building Singapore
Tel: +65 6487 2429

Hurray! May is finally here! I don’t care what others say, but May is my favorite month! It always kicks off with a bang (with a public holiday no less), and ends off with a big celebration. And incidentally, May also happens to be my mom’s name. April has come and gone in a flash, but I have always known her as the month of Chili Crab.

Every year this time, my family will be on the hunt for the best chili crab in Singapore, and we have the perfect excuse for it. My mom’s birthday falls in April, and her favorite dish is Singapore’s famous chili crab. Naturally, we are always on the lookout for places that serve good chili crabs.

Although the first thing that comes to anyone’s mind when you mention Chinese Seafood restaurants are at East Coast Park, we ended up at Red House Seafood at Robertson Quay instead because of its proximity to where we were. The Chinese seafood restaurant located further down from the Alkaff Bridge at Robertson Quay, away from the main stretch of restaurants, just beside Boomarang Bistro.

If there is a must eat dish in Singapore, it will definitely be Chili crab. For those who are not particularly keen on the sweet-spicy rendition, we have other fabulous creations like black pepper, white pepper, curry sauce, doubled baked cheese on the menus of the various Seafood restaurants in Singapore.

Besides my favorite Chili crab, I’ve been a fan of Salted Egg Crab for a while now. Unfortunately, Red House Seafood does not have that on the menu, so we opted for the Wok-fried with fresh herbs & fragrant Butter Crab ($4 per 100g) instead.

Even though I was quick in taking photos, the Sambal Kangkong ($10) wasn’t hot and lacked the wok-hei taste. On the other hand, the Fried Baby Squid was crunchy, and juicy, and addictive – it’s seriously better than potato chips.

The saving grace was the famous Red House’s Chili Crab ($4 per 100g).

With the thick, and sweet chili gravy around, nothing else seems to matter. I dipped the deep-fried mantou, fried baby squid, crispy roasted chicken, and even the butter crab into the chili gravy. Sense of accomplishment is when I had two big crab pincers and three bowls of chili gravy to myself.

Let me drown in the goodness of the chili gravy!

I’m not sure if it’s just me, but I can’t help but feel that Red House Seafood at the Quayside caters more for the tourist crowd. Service was lack-luster, and the waitstaff seemed to be more attentive towards our foreign friends. And they charged for ice water too!

To be fair, the chili crab was very good and they are located in a central location. But if you ask me, I’d probably check out the Red House at East Coast Park or other Chinese Seafood restaurants when I’m craving for chili crabs next time.

For the Red House Seafood supporters out there, are there any differences in the quality of food and service between the East Coast main outlet and the Robertson Quay one? Which dishes do you usually order? And for the rest of you, tell me which is your favorite Chinese Seafood Restaurant in Singapore.

Restaurant Review
Red House Seafood Restaurant (Quay Side)
60 Robertson Quay
#01-13 The Quayside
Tel: +65 6735 7666

* The Palm Beach Seafood Giveaway is now closed. The winners are Daniel (29), Chloe (18), HahazZ (57), Vivian (37). Thank you for participating, better luck next time! *

“My all time favorite is chili crab with deep-fried mantou, what’s yours?” I asked on twitter.

Everyone replied enthusiastically, the popular choices are pepper crab, chili crab, crab bee hoon, salted egg yoke crab and butter crab. Even though I just had chili crab and double baked cheese crab at Palm Beach Seafood recently, I find myself craving for  the thick, sweet-and-spicy gravy of the chili crab, with deep fried mantou of course.

While we are at the topic of crab, I realize people like to debate on which restaurant has the best crab in Singapore. Like what I always say: whichever place you like – has the best crab!

HOW TO ENTER THE PALM BEACH SEAFOOD CRAB GIVEAWAY

I totally understand how it feels to be on your end, looking at all the photos and yet cannot get to taste the food; so I’m happy to announce that Palm Beach Seafood has kindly agreed to giveaway $50 vouchers (no minimum spending required) to 4 lucky readers. If you want a chance to win, here is what to do:

1. Leave a comment on this post

Tell us what’s your favorite crab and why. I’m asking for your favorite style of cooking for the crab, it does not have to be from a particular restaurant. Just tell me what style do you like, and if you happen to like an exotic way of cooking crabs which can be anything for example, Double Baked Cheese Crab, let us know! (***updated***)

And ONE entry per person, you are encouraged to get your friends to join the contest but please play fair and do not post multiple comments under different names.

2. Use a valid & contactable email

Please use a valid & contactable email when you post the comment. I will email the winners shortly after the contest ended, remember to check your email on Monday.

3. And the Four lucky Winners . . .

The four lucky winners will be decided by a highly sophisticated method, and I reserve the right to re-pick if there’s any discrepancy or foul-play involved. I know there are folks from the States, Malaysia, Australia, and other countries reading my blog, but unfortunately this contest is only open to those currently residing in Singapore. But all of you are welcome to share your thoughts too!

The closing date for this giveaway is Sunday 28th of Feb 2359 hrs, and so you have exactly forty eight hours before it ends.

I hope you enjoy the little gift I have for everyone!

Remember my suggestion to have Seafood for your Chinese New Year dinner?

Since there’s still a few more days before Chinese New Year ends, if you are still looking for a restaurant to toss Yu Sheng, Palm Beach Seafood restaurant at One Fullerton might just be the place. Instead of the typical salmon yusheng, we had the Alaskan King Crab Yu Sheng (S$58 or S$88).

My weekdays, by and large, are similar to the weekends of most people. I had a fabulous dinner on Monday night, attended my friend’s big night on Tuesday, and now we have a seafood feast on Wednesday. It’s probably going to be Japanese cuisine tomorrow, and Russian food on Friday. Okay, I am muttering to myself.

Anyway, a seafood feast sounds pretty good right? Chili crabs, sashimi, lobster, seafood platter. Have I got your attention? Good. Make yourself comfortable.

Lets try again: air-flown Hokkaido scallop, huge gleaming oysters, live poached prawns, fresh salmon sashimi, and the gigantic bamboo clam. That’s better. I could vaguely recall the oysters that I had, unprocessed and fresh. A wedge of lemon is all you need for the perfect oyster.

I don’t know about you, but I’d definitely order the Seafood Deluxe Combination ($23.00 per person) with a selection of five seafood items.

I don’t know if there’s anything special about Palm Beach’s signature Chili Crab ($4.50 per 100g), but I absolutely love it! My feelings for the Singapore famous dish very much depends on two things: a) thick and spicy-sweet chili gravy, and b) deep fried mantou.

The pincers were long gone by the time I was done with the deep fried buns. It’s easy to choose between crabs and mantou (with gravy) – I’d go for the latter anytime.

The award winning Double Baked Cheese Crab ($4.50 per 100g) reminded me of the baked cheese lobster that I’ve before, with its strong cheesy taste. Baked parmesan cheese and crab? Sounds like a winner! If you do not want to get your hands dirty, ask for help from the staff. Catherine got her crab de-shell the easy way.

I first had lobsters when I was a very young boy. Back then, I had no idea how much a lobster was worth. To me, it looked like a GIANT prawn. But what mattered then, was that it tasted good. As I grew up, I realized that lobsters are very expensive seafood, and they can be prepared in many different ways; baked, steamed, fried, sashimi, salad – whichever ways it pleases your palates.

The one that we had was very different from the ones I’ve before. Usually I’d go for either baked or salad lobsters, but we couldn’t miss out on Palm Beach’s awarding winning Coco Lobo – Australian Lobster with Vermicelli in Superior Stock ($16.80 per 100g). It came piping hot in individual claypot, with the lobster meat and vermicelli absorbing the essence of the flavorful stock.

Sweet and tangy, intense yet refreshing. It’s also not too spicy. The Honey Tangy Marble Goby ($7.50 per 100g) is fried till golden-brown: crispy and soft and appetizing, drizzled with just enough of the terrific sauce. Ju had the blissful look after she finished the dish – it was awesome!

* * *

This is the third part of a series that I’m doing on the waterfront restaurants in One Fullerton. I’ll like to thank Fullerton Heritage, Karin of Palm Beach Seafood and Gail for arranging and hosting this dinner.

From what we observed, most Singaporeans seem to dine in the comfort of the air-condition, while the tourists prefer the al fresco area with the waterfront view. Will you dine indoors or outside at the al fresco area?

Restaurant Review
Palm Beach Seafood Restaurant
1 Fullerton Road
#01-09 One Fullerton
Tel: +65 6227 2332

There’s nothing sweeter in life to witness your friend tying the knot; be it a simple dinner of having your close friends to  celebrate the special moment, or a grand affair of getting the whole world (including people that you do not know) to be there – this must be it, happily ever after.

I often receive emails from readers and friends, asking me for suggestion of places, to hold their wedding reception and birthday parties. After going to Barracks at House for my friend’s big day, I’d think that the Greenhouse room in Barracks, is a very good place to throw a party.

‘With that, I declared you husband and wife.’

Such a simple statement, yet it meant so much. Tears of joy, surely. This will be the moment when you look back in ten, twenty, thirty years time down the road, and smile.

Dinner was a simple affair. On this special day, everything and anything, will taste good. We had a choice of the immensely popular Ahi Taki Salad and a seafood platter.

The presence of seafood compelled me to go for the latter, Deep Sea Threesome. A plateful of spicy calamari, appetizing prawns, intriguing black mussels, with the sweetest pineapple and mango.

I know this sounds wrong, but I have been feasting way too much nowadays. With a heavy dinner the previous night, and another tasting the next day, against my better judgment, I decided on the lobster Linguine over the House Ribeye Steak.

And when the first steak arrived on the table, I immediately knew that I was going to regret the decision.

Well, my eyes went wide open when I saw the two words, ‘lobster & linguine’. Unfortunately, I did not read the description of the pasta carefully. The menu goes like this: Lobster Linguine, Crab meat & Prawn Bolognese, homemade black pepper sauce.

Oh, there’s black pepper. Homemade black pepper sauce to be exact. I’m not a fan of anything-black-pepper. The lobster was delicious of course, but I couldn’t finish my linguine. The others were full of praises for the pasta. Anyway, desserts next.

Warm Chocolate Toffee Cake. Swoon. Did I just read warm, chocolate, toffee, and cake? It sounds good, it looks even better. Despite trying a few places for toffee cake, I still couldn’t find a good one that can satisfied me. After having Barrack’s interpretation of this popular dessert, I believe, the missing puzzle for sticky toffee cake – is warm chocolate. I’m a very happy boy.

If you need a place for your birthday party, wedding solemnization, the Greenhouse room at Barracks will be a very good option. Alternatively, there are also other rooms with special theme in Barracks that are available for other events.

* * *

To my awesome Joy & her Bunny, stay happy forever.

Restaurant Review
Barracks at House
8D Dempsey Road
#01-01 to 06 Tanglin Village
Tel: +65 6475 7787

Come to think of it, I have been using the word feast very frequently, for a lack of better word. I mean when you are having a scrumptious seafood platter, tasty prawns, big crabs, fresh sashimi, gigantic clams – you can’t possibly say, oh I have a normal dinner can you?

We started with Tung Lok’s signature Seafood platter ($68, portion for 4), it had everything you wished for: cold crabs, sashimi, oysters. Okay maybe not, it would be perfect if there’s lobster too. Under our persuasion, we managed to convince one of us who never like oysters to give it a shot – the thing with oysters is  you either love or hate it. The scene of her slurping down the cold raw oysters? Priceless.

How can a seafood platter be without sashimi? The raw fish was generously sliced, and ready to be savour. But the wasabi that came along with it was quite disappointing.

Luckily, we also had the Wasabi prawns ($24) which was excellent; fresh crunchy prawn balls coated with a thin layer of wasabi mayo sauce. I like how the wasabi provided the subtle flavor without the choking sensation.

The Roast pork shoulder ($24) was gorgeous in every way, beneath the char-grilled surface was the tender pork shoulder. I wouldn’t go as far to say it melted in my mouth, but it was pretty close. And having some fats once in a while won’t kill you.

This was the dish that all of us were there for – Singapore’s famous Chili Crab ($45 per kg). I was sexcited by the thought of dipping the deep-fried mantou buns into the thick spicy-sweet gravy. But the crab failed to impose its aura with the less-than-satisfying chili gravy which just wasn’t good enough. None of which, I should note, makes this the chili crab to die for. Maybe the mantou, but definitely not the crab nor the gravy.

I’m always a chili/salted egg yoke crab person, so I’m afraid you probably will not get a very fair rating about the Black Pepper crab ($45 per kg) from me. I’m happy to tell you that the others felt it was much better than the chili crab, however it was too salty for my liking. But then again, I’m not a crab-lover, so what do I know?

It was my first time having Steamed Razor Clam ($8 each) with garlic, and it was big/huge/enormous/gigantic! The vermicelli absorbed the essence of the sauce, and it was pretty rewarding to dig out the clam meat. Fine, I exaggerated – what I merely did was just to fork it inside my mouth.

* * *

This is part of a series that I’m 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.

Tung Lok Seafood
1000 East Coast Parkway
2F Marine Cove
Tel: 6246 0555

Somehow the name langkawi remains me of kawaii, not that they have anything in common. It is with the same cheerful tone that we stepped ashore at the beautiful island; you can’t be too upset when the scenery around is so magnificent.

There ought to be a bug inside my stomach. If not how do we explain the fact that it is constantly growling? The never-ending-of-food going down to it.

Among the seven sins of Mankind, gluttony must surely be my greatest peccadillo. Dear whoever-it-may-concern (since I don’t believe in God), I have sinned. I’m a glutton, I eat too much and I’m constantly harbouring secret thoughts of eating even more. I think of lunch when I just started breakfast, and lust after dinner when I’m with lunch. I also missed supper when I goes out with dinner.

I envisage a life living in the kelong, just the two of us, away from this world. Waking up beside you every morning, to see the beautiful sun-rise, you look fabulous like the morning dew. We sat there locking into each others eyes, wishing this moment would hold still.

We would walk down the pristine white beach against the backdrop of Tiffany blue, hands in hands, with the tiny sands slipping through our toes. The ocean breeze blows your long silky tresses afloat. We watched the amazing sunset on this exact spot, and we repeat it, everyday, until the end of the end.

And how can we come to Langkawi without having seafood? It’s like going to Beijing without climbing the Great World of China. And we feasted. The seafood was so good, and unbelievably dirt-cheap!

My initial plan was to get salted-egg prawns since I had good memories of anything-cook-in-salted-egg. But it was foiled as the restaurant mysteriously did not have that dish even though it was stated perfectly clear on the menu. Nonetheless, the sambal prawn (RM16 for 200g) was a worthy substitute, and for once I actually thought that it wasn’t spicy enough!

I know it must be boring to see my cze-char posts since we always had the same dishes. But we love sambal kangkong (RM8), and here it is!

I love, love chilli crab (RM45 for 1kg). And my affection isn’t for the crustacean creatures; the chilli gravy was the one I’m after. Thick, spicy with a hint of sweetness, eggy chilli gravy, it was so, so good. I dipped the mantou in it, I poured it over the white rice, I had it with all the food that’s on the table.

Sweet and sour pork was supposed to be in this frame, but since I was the only one who was interested in that, the Thai-sauce chicken (RM10) made the appearance instead. And it was good! The fried chicken was drenched in sweet and slightly spicy; the Thai-influence sauce was very refreshing!

And since everything was so bloody cheap here, we had a snapper (RM45). Steamed Teochew style, the fish was very fresh and sweet, but it was a little too bland; I dipped it into the chilli gravy and finished every bit of it!

I bided you farewell here, send me no further, for I will not be able to let go. I know we will meet each other, one day.

* * *

Read the other stories of The City Kid here.

My eyes strayed to the corner as we walked in, the desserts section; I saw the chocolate cake waving to me, the dessert shooters like a lighthouse beaconing the direction. And not lest, the-sight-of-it again: the omnipresent chocolate fondue, my heart just flew over with hugs and kisses.

Not able to resist the seduction, I dropped every last bit of pretence in me and embraced the temptation; lets start with the desserts shall we? We took a bit of everything, and started tucking in. We decided just to have some, and come back for more later. It was a difficult decision; to stop after we started, it was akin to asking a vampire to stop after he started sucking blood from your neck.

And so, the cold seafood counter. There were prawns, there were crabs, and there were mussels & scallops.

A sniff of the icy chilled oyster, the sea breeze gusted into my nose. The hassle of opening up the clam creature was avoided, for it was already prepared nice and clean on the bed of ice. I squeezed a whole wedge of lemon onto it, careful not to spill any outside the shell; every drop of lemon was precious, to fully bring out the quintessence of it. I pitched it up with a fork, and slowly put it into my mouth, one swallow, one gulp, and it was gone.

Our stomach has served us well, and to reward it for the hard work, let’s start with some salad. We took a bit of all the different greens, and dressed it up with the many-variety of dressing available; I always preferred thousand island, while you went for the lighter Italian dressing, and also the adventurous yoghurt one too.

It was fun, the process of ‘playing’ with the Kueh pie tee; we took the shell, add in the typical popiah turnip fillings, sprinkled a bit of the crushed peanuts, drizzled the sweet sauce, beautify it with parsley, and had options of tuna, chicken, and prawns to top with. Boy, it was good! The crispy shell, with the turnip fillings, but it was the sweet sauce and peanut which provided the difference.

There was roasted meat selections, Indian food, Western & Asian mains to choose from too. Again, we ate some of each, and finally it could wait no longer! This time, for desserts, we shall try everything, one of everything. Two if we can help it!

At first glance, it looked like pandan cake. Then, the pistachio financier name tag appeared, in a concealed corner oblivious to the naked human eye. The green stuff, they called it the pistachio nut, it was a personal favourite of our friend; and surprisingly, the pandan-cake-lookalike had a flavourful pistachio taste!

I remembered the truffle berry compote cake for its smooth and silky chocolate, with composition of berries within.

For some unknown reason which continue to evade me, passion fruit seemed to be a popular choice for patissier, I did not have any nice experience with it so far; but I guess it’s the intriguing combination of that-something-sour with the strong cheesecake. I, however, did not like it. I like sweet stuff, something sweet please.

While it had became a common thing for buffets, the chocolate fondue still never failed to excite me, I dipped fruits, puffs, marshmallows, and everything I could find under the flowing chocolate lava.

This, was my favourite part of the buffet. There’s a chef specially preparing waffles and crepes on-the-spot. The waffles were excellent, but they used the same mixture for the crepes, which turned out to be overly thick. And the staffs actually delivered the waffles to our tables when we forgot to collect it, now my dear, that’s what you call service!

I used syrup and butter for my first waffle. Then I returned for more with a topping of all the ice creams available, creativity struck me as I poured some of the lava from the chocolate fondue over my piece of crispy waffles.

The weekend dinner buffet from Mon to Wed is $45++, while dinner from Thursday onwards to Sunday is $50++ per head. We were too full to try all the food; we missed out on the Indian food, and the roasted duck selections. Eating a little of everything was almost enough to fill up the tiny stomach of ours. Plenty of tea and a long chat after the meal aided in the digestion too! My appreciation to Helen, the F&B manager of Traders Hotel, for the food tasting invitation.

Read about my other posts on buffet here.

Cafebiz
1A Cuscaden road
GF Traders hotel
Tel: 6831 4374

Relish by Wild Rocket is a gourmet burger restaurant that aims to serve the best burgers in Singapore.

I never knew burgers could be so photogenic, they were dead gorgeous; there’s the sexy Williams, the hunky seafood mayo, the boy-next-door Ram-lee, the popular wild rocket, the sweetie bacon & cheese, and the macho char siew. The galaxy of stars (burgers), roll the red carpet!

The guest appearance of the tomato relish brought another dimension to the taste. And while the emmental cheese was good, if I could have my way, I would put double cheese, one on the top of the patty and the other beneath.

Crackle, crunch, crisp-cross. The crispy streaky bacon were the contrast to the beef patty. With so much ingredients packed together; the lettuces dropping, the melted cheese flowing down the patty, the tomato relish flying all over, and the bacon strips not staying in place – it was a messy affair. The bacon & Cheese beef burger ($18 for 180g)

There were bound to be comparisons among them, the signature Wild Rocket beef burger ($17 for 180g) was slightly tougher than the rest, with charred surface on the patty. There was no exotic ingredients, or any fancy name; just a very good beef burger.

The wannabe. This was surely how the rest eyed it; borne with the almost-alike name, and with its destiny tightly bound to the famous street side Ramly burger. This was a bold makeover, the upper east side ramly, Ram-lee beef burger ($19 for 180g).

The patty, ah, the heart and soul of the burger; it was done more tender and juicy than the cheese & bacon burger, but, this was not a ramly burger. The ramly burger, the real deal, was more generous with their sweet chili sauce. And the omelette wasn’t done to my liking; it was flimsy, and lacking in the egg taste. It was a pity really, for all the promises, it wasn’t shiok enough.

The blue cheese & William pear beef burger ($19 for 180g) was destined for stardom; the wonderfully-toned body, the rocket hair, and the sliced poached William pear. Oh-my! The walnut butter which was beneath the 180g of beef patty was crunchy, and the poached pears gave a different definition to burgers. However, the blue cheese taste was sorely missing, and that’s the only thing that prevented an Oscar.

The seafood burger lemon mayo definitely looked way smaller than the last time I’ve it, and the lemon mayo was also notably lesser. This one, was from the sea: crab, fish, prawns, octopus mixed together to form the patty.

Honey, they shrink the burger!

Oh-oh-oh, this was good. In fact good alone probably did not do any justice to the burger. Resting on a bed of homemade foccacia, the char siew soft-bone pork was absolutely delicious! The balance of the lean meat with the chewy pork tendons, it was perfect; how did they came up with the BBQ char siew pork open burger ($18 for 180g), it was mind-blowing!

And I was greedy, I took a few more bite while the rest wasn’t looking. Good stuff like this, it’s all right to be greedy. It’s mine, and mine alone!

And we chose two desserts to go along, first up was the pandan-infused panna cotta with gula melaka ($9). A fusion creation: the Western dessert with the favourite Asian ingredients.

I preferred the roasted black sesame puree with vanilla ice cream ($8) to the pandan panna cotta. It was a pity not trying their signature cheese cake though, it had firmly took a place in my heart ever since I had it last time.

For the six of us, we ordered four burgers from the ala carte menu, with the other two burgers and desserts coming from the two-course set lunch ($24). Relish ought to have some of the most pretty burgers around, and we finished all the fries too! The burger however, could be bigger: the infamously tiny Relish burgers.

And I’ve learnt that the old ala carte brunch menu from Wild rocket is available at Relish.

Read my fellow food blogger review:
Nic @ Black tie white lie here
Leroy @ Hungrycow here
Evan @ Bossacafez here
Julia @ Aromacookery here
Phil @ Singapura Daily makan photo here

Relish
501 Bukit timah road
#02-01 Cluny court
Tel: 6763 1547

Alighting at EW XV, red dot was at the rear, and I passed by amoy. Stanley, Stanley where were you? I looked high, I searched far. Lo & behold, there you are. I hold you dear in my heart, Sweet Indulgence a year ago.

Gone were the white, in came the yellow. With a touch of blue, everything lingers fondly deep inside. Memories. This is the stuff that life is made of. I want to hold onto this moment forever.

The hot and the fury. What was supposed to be a routine simple appetiser ended up in the fast lane instead. We were too ambitious, and nodded when the manager smiled at us and asked innocently, extra spicy? Boy. This, was one hot chick. Only for the daredevil, Chicken wing in spicy sauce ($9.50).

A bit of everything from Nature’s best, garlic, basil, pesto with a variety of mushrooms. The result, a delicious comfort food. Sauté mushrooms ($9.50)

The Seafood platter ($19.50) was an assembly of seafood sauté in a white wine herb reduction, which came on the recommendation of the manager.

The problem, with not reading the fine print of the menu, meant that we were surprised when the platter arrived, completely opposite of the usual Fish & Co style. Overcoming our initial reaction, we dug in and found ourselves with mussel, scallop, clam, fish, squid and prawns.

Skinny seems to be the In-thing at the moment. 10 inch thin crust Siciliana pizza ($22). Home-made with a spicy element. With bratwurst sausages, roasted capsicum, onions and semi-dried tomatoes. Personally I felt that it wasn’t cheesy enough, but it garnered enough support from my mates to overrule me.

Call me ignorant, but I did not remember seeing crayfish served with pasta very often. It was usually the limelight of its more popular cousin, lobster instead. Much as I was tempted to go with the salmon pasta which I always have, a adventure was on the cards. And hence the pick, Crayfish linguine ($25) I liked the fact that everything was executed very nicely. The flavours were delicate and did not overwhelm.

We did not want to have everything from the land, so it was a tough fight between the baked salmon fillet, and the Pan-fried seabass ($26.50). The latter won of course. On paper, a pan-fried seabass served with mashed potato, daily vegetables was as safe as anything could be. But it was not to be. The fish was slightly over-aged, and I wouldn’t exactly use fresh to describe it. It wasn’t all over, the unique taste of orange based salsa was the saving grace.

The most expensive item on the menu, the lamb rack ($40.50). With portobello mushroom, daily vegetables, mashed potatoes and the beautifully grilled rack of lamb certainly looked enticing. But there was a snag. The proportion of fats to meat was equally balanced, which did not go well with the ladies.

The portobello mushroom made its second appearance with the Beef Tenderloin ($37.50). It was another tough decision to choose between the pork rack or the steak, but we were glad to have this. The roasted baby potatoes were snapped up in two seconds, the steak was the best among the three mains we had.

Desserts were done in-house by the chef, and we had the New York Cheesecake ($11). For such a hefty price tag, we were expecting a lot more, but sad to say it wasn’t good enough. The dessert lacked the dense and creamy aspect and somehow was sticky and crumbled easily.

The Warm Chocolate Lava Indulgence ($13) made up for the previous mistake.  Like all warm chocolate pudding, the melted dark chocolate oozed out and this sight never fails to excite me. Also impressive was the use of vanilla bean ice cream. My dining mates found it too light, but anything with warm chocolate and cold ice cream couldn’t possibly go wrong with my sweet tooth. We agreed it was slightly better than Bakerzin’s rendition.

I had a sweet memory of the tiramisu I had a year ago. At this very place, Sweet Indulgence’s tiramisu ($13). The coffee and liquer taste was very subtle, but that was exactly what I liked about you. The dessert was very smoothing to the palate, and if you do not think of it as a tiramisu, it is actually very good. But if you are expecting a typical strong coffee & liquer rendition, then you are just not that into her.

***

Photographs are the best memories keepers, and I have added more sweet memories with this. I’ll like to thank Chris for inviting me for this food-tasting session. There was some hits and misses, but Sweet Indulgence remains a nice place for couples to have a romantic dinner without any disturbance. I did find the prices to be rather steep, there is a current promotion of 1 free dessert with any 2 main courses or pastas.

Read my previous visit here

Sweet Indulgence
2 Stanley Street
Tel: 6223 7707

Ryan Giggs dribbled down the left flank, just like how he consistently did it for Man U over the years. He took a glimpse and passed it centre to Scholes, who stopped and played with the defender. After which, Scholes spotted Cristiano Ronaldo roaming in from the right wing, and he sent a perfect through ball in, the Portuguese winger took his chance and dutifully converted. Goal!

This is not a scene at Old Trafford, although all Manchester United fans would die to visit the place at least once in his lifetime. For the next closest thing, we have Manchester United Cafe Bar.

The breezy al fresco area overlooks the Singapore River, with the picturesque Singapore Flyer in the settings. I was surprised by the coolness of the place on a hot afternoon.

Manchester United Café Bar (MUCB) should not be a stranger to those who frequented Boat Quay, or the soccer fanatics. Opening shop in November last year, the place is the Devils new home ground taking over the now defunct Reds cafe @ Devil’s Bar.

For the true devil only. Vodka, tequila, kuas, whisky, brandy are some of the liqueur mixed with juice to create this Red Devil drink. I took a few sips, not that I always drink during the day-time, and there seem to be stars flying all over. All right, I’m just joking about the stars!

Their highly acclaimed Crispy soft-shell crab ($15.0) started our tasting session. Lightly battered soft-shell crab topped with cucumber salad and a special ginger flower dressing. You know, the problem with food-blogging is we tend to take a long time trying for a perfect shot of the food. By the time we tried this, the soft-shell crab was a tad soft and soggy from the sauce already. But i love the refreshing cucumber salad which complimented the crispy crab very well.

There’s the devils’ wing. There’s devils on horseback. There’s beef short rib. And there’s onion rings. A bit of everything. The Manchester Combo Platter ($28.0). There wasn’t anything spectacular about the devils’ wing, just crispy chicken wings accompanied with sweet and sour hot sauce. The peculiar-sounding name of devils on horseback did piped my curiosity, which was deep fried veal sausages wrapped with chicken bacon. The beef short rib also caught me by surprise since my first impression of it was pork ribs instead of beef.

Named after Europe’s top club trophy which Manchester United won last year, for the third time. The Champions Burger ($16.90), how befitting. Freshly ground ribeye beef patty done medium-rare, topped with caramelised onion, chicken bacon, and mushroom. However, I lamented the fact that there wasn’t enough cheese, and it wasn’t melted enough to give the Oomph impact.The fries were generous and pretty decent.

The fish & chips ($17.90) came with two slice of the battered fillet of fish, with golden fries and greens. If you are looking at a typical fish & chips in Singapore, this passed the test, but it lacked the connection to the English food, which a Manchester United café should have.

My meal can never be completed without any sweets. I asked for the in-house dessert, which turned out to be Red Devil’s Pudding ($7.90). Homemade chocolate pudding served with hazelnut and ice cream. This is one dessert which can never go wrong, with chocolate lava oozing out from the pudding, eaten with the cold chilly ice cream, you are in heaven, my dear. I did felt that the $7.90 tag is slightly steep considering a place which does not specialise in desserts. But if you are like me who need sweets to end off a meal, here you go.

Be at the top of the world controlling your favourite club, transferring and buying your favourite players. That’s what Football Manager (FM) brags about. Something better, sit at the dugout in the midst of a match!

More than just a sports bar, MUCB hopes to portray the image that there can be good food with your drinks too. I think it is good for Boat Quay on a whole, to shake off the sleezy image which so many people perceive it to be.

MUCB offers food with reasonable pricing, but my only qualm was the lack of identity of the cafe. The food although it was above average, lacks the connection with Manchester United the football club. The place, although it has lots of Manchester United stuff, lacked the distinctiveness.

Maybe it was due to the afternoon visit, I’m sure the atmosphere will be very different on a match day. Whatever it is, MUCB does provides a new option for lunch if you are working in the vicinity. And for the Manchester United fans out there, what are ya waiting for?!?

I will like to thank Shawal from Asiaprwerkz who invited me for this food tasting session, and Mr Andy Yun, CEO of Manchester United Food & Beverage Asia, who hosted us and gave an interesting insight about his vision for MUCB.

Manchester United Café Bar
Boat Quay (Next to Dallas)
Tel: 65335880

They have been away for a long time now; the feel, touch, sight, smell were always in their mind, but its gradually fading away with each day passed. How they wished they could be back, but reality often gets the better of man. He missed the food, while she yearned for the familiar environment.

It struck them after entering the place, the comfortable and cozy environment, just like home. Jia Wei restaurant. How apt.

To have Christmas without the festive turkey and ham (both sets), it’ll be like to have the Mid-autumn festival without the mooncakes, or going through Halloween without pumpkins. He found the meat was too tough and dry, while there was the wasabi sauce, it was insufficient and wasabi didn’t exactly compliment the turkey meat well. Luckily there was the fresh fruits salad to save the day.

The highlight of the menu will definitely be Jia Wei Superior Shark’s Fin soup (Festive cheers menu) in hot stone pot. Thick and generous portions are discovered, the excitement just like discovering a treasure cove. The hot stone pot played a vital role in keeping the rich stock base warm and nice, a notable fact after they tried the other shark’s fin soup which wasn’t served in the stone pot. This bowl of treasure will most likely cost you a bomb if you have it elsewhere, but at Jia Wei, they do it cheap and good, its available on their a la carte menu too. Eating a Chinese delicacy for a frosty Christmas, the thought of home seem so far away.

While the superior shark’s fin soup with Conpoy (Christmas glow menu) offered the same ingredients as the previous one in hotpot, but the differential in price obviously meant that the higher priced festive cheers menu had slightly more shark’s fin. This one was lukewarm by the time they started eating, while the hot stone pot one remained piping hot. The dumpling-wannabe actually had water chestnut, vegetarian mushrooms and crab rob.

The layer of fats aroused her inner feelings. There was a struggle to ignore the calories and enjoyed the bliss. The grilled special rack of lamb (Festive cheers menu) made her succumb to temptation. If they were not to mention anything, you’ll never know the use of Chinese wine, together with a bit of Japanese Sake created a wonderful sauce which covered the usual strong lamb/mutton smell. Without the fats, the rack of lamb wouldn’t be as good, since they largely contributed the tenderness to the overall taste. And, the sweetness of the meat was actually extracted by chewing and sucking the bones. Sinful, yet so good!

One of the dish which he missed a lot from home was pork. The pan-fried fillet of pork spare-rib (Christmas glow menu) was exactly what he needed to satisfy his needs and homesickness. The special seasoning was very peculiar, the inital guess of fruits were proven wrong. Done in Japanese style, the sauce was slightly sweet and sour, which provided a tangy robust taste. The pork was pan-fried that the crispy layer was just right for the meat. It was very delicious. The downside? Portions were dainty considering it’s the main course.

While the braised bai ling mushroom with broccoli (Festive cheers menu) was what his mother used to prepare, he didn’t quite enjoyed the dish since the overall taste was a tad too subtle for his liking. Yes, although this vegetables dish was supposed to be light since the previous few dishes were rather strong in flavour, so i guess its more of different taste buds.

The similar dish on the Christmas glow menu, braised dry scallop with sea cucumber and bamboo piths. The vegetables were fresh, but being neither a fan of scallop nor sea cucumber, they didn’t know how to appreciate it.

There’s reasons for relatives to look alike. Was it baby lobster? Or is it crayfish? Gosh, wait a minute, it does rather looks like a big prawn instead! The home-made noodles were springy and smooth to the palate. The big prawns were fresh and succulent. But, there’s always the big BUT to look out for. Having used stock base for the Shark’s fin, the vegetables dish, and now the noodles. They couldn’t finish the home-made noodles with prawn (both sets) because the excess usage of stock base did seem a bit too much.

The simple, yet refreshing chilled lemon jelly (Festive cheers menu) was definitely a welcoming dessert. With the robust lemon sorbet, and the light lemon jelly, the all-lemon combination provided a sweet ending to the Christmas feast.

On the other hand, there’s the chilled mango pudding (Christmas glow menu) which wasn’t as good as it lacked the bouncy and chewy texture that a good pudding should have.The whole mango flavour was also not very strong, but you’ve to give credits to them for making the mango pudding so pretty.

The oriental Christmas feast at Jia Wei brought them closer to home, and the whole meal took 3 half hours to complete.

Christmas Glow ($78++)
Festive turkey, ham and fresh fruits salad
Superior Shark’s fins soup with conpoy
Pan-fried fillet of pork spare-rib with special sauce
Braised dry scallop with sea cucumber and bamboo piths
Homemade noodles with prawn and conpoy
Chilled mango pudding

Festive Cheers ($98++)
Festive turkey, ham and fresh fruits salad
Jia Wei superior Shark’s fin soup in hot stone pot
Grilled special rack of lamb with Chinese wine
Braised bai ling mushroom with broccoli
Homemade noodles with prawn and conpoy
Chilled lemon jelly

Enjoy a 30% discount on the Christmas feast from Monday to Thursday, except on 24, 25, 31 Dec 2008 & 1 Jan 2009. This was an invited food tasting session, I’ll like to thank Keane and Shu Ling representing Grand Mercure Roxy hotel for being a wonderful host. I’ll also like to take the chance to praise Jia Wei’s assistance manager, Jessica who was very professional and knowledgeable about the cuisines. And also to my dining companion for being a good company (you know who you are).

Read Camemberu review on the Christmas feast here
Hisfoodblog review here
and my previous visit to Feast @ East

Jia Wei Chinese restaurant
Level 2 Grand Mercure Roxy Hotel
50 East Coast road, Roxy Square
(Opp parkway parade)
Tel: 6340 5678