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

Alongside Holland Village, Chip Bee Garden, Greenwood Avenue & Rochester Park, Sunset Way is another food dining destination in the West of Singapore. Using the limited space under the flats, the Sunset Way Restaurants managed to create an unique al fresco dining area which is totally unexpected of a heartland place.

Here’s a complete guide to the Sunset Way Restaurants in Singapore:

Bather’s Cafe & Restaurant

Together with The Daily Scoop, and Classic Cakes, Bather’s Cafe & Restaurant is located at Clementi Arcade (further down the road from Sunset way). They have very reasonable set lunches that are worth a try if you are working nearby.

41 Sunset Way #01-02/03
Clementi Arcade Singapore
Tel: +65 6463 1767

Balmoral Bakery

Traditional bakeries are a dying breed in Singapore, and it is such a shame that we can’t find much of them anymore. If you are a big fan of old school pastries, I’m sure you will love Balmoral Bakery!

Blk 105 Clementi St 12
#01-08 Sunset Way Singapore
Tel: 6779 2064

Buttercake & Cream

Buttercake n Cream was formerly known as Peaberry & Pretzel (selling German food), but the owners have since changed the concept to an ice cream parlour and dessert place. When I walked by that day, I saw from the menu that they are currently serving proper hot food too. So if you are looking for a place to sit down for coffee/food/dessert, jot down the name Buttercake N Cream.

Blk 106 Clementi St 12
#01-52 Sunset Way Singapore
Tel: +65 6777 3477

Chin Huat Live Seafood

“A Lobster that is bigger than a small girl”

I’m sure many of you will remember this TV advertisement slogon from Chin Huat seafood restaurant. There’s no need to go all the way to East Coast Park for seafood when there’s Chin Huat Live Seafood at Sunset way!

105 Clementi Street 12
#01-30 Sunset Way Singapore
Tel: +65 6775 7348

Classic Cakes

The mille crêpes from Classic Cakes made headlines for being one of the Top 50 Cakes in Singapore. Other signature desserts include the Black Forest, cheesecakes and Yam cake!

41 Sunset Way #01-06
Clementi Arcade Singapore
Tel: +65 9827 8005

Fortune Cuisine

If you are looking for a Steamboat buffet in the West of Singapore, Fortune Cuisine might be just the place. Lunch buffet is $16.80++, and dinner is $23.80++.

Blk 106 Clementi St 12
#01-38A/B Sunset Way Singapore
Tel: +65 6777 8622

Gelato Art @ Sunset
Blk 105 Clementi St 12
#01-16 Sunset Way Singapore
Tel: +65 9734 6243

Grilled Out

For those of you who always go to Orchard Central, you will probably have seen Grilled-out at level seven. Unfortunately that branch is now closed, and the only place to try their premium meat is from the original branch at Sunset Way.

Blk 106 Clementi St 12
#01-38E Sunset Way Singapore
Tel: +65 6774 7001

Kim’s Family Restaurant

My favorite Korean Restaurant in Singapore has a new outlet! I was pleasantly surprised when I walked by Kim’s Family Restaurant at Sunset way. For a second or two, I was wondering if they are under the same owner, until I saw  the word’Lorong Kilat’ on the menu. Hooray to more Korean food!

Blk 106 Clementi St 12
#01-44 Sunset Way Singapore
Tel: +65 6774 4643

Megumi Japanese restaurant

Blk 106 Clementi St 12
#01-38 Sunset Way Singapore
Tel: +65 6779 1411

Rocky Pizza

Rocky Pizza is one of the oldest tenants at Sunset way and they have a comprehensive selection of pizza and pastas available on the menu.

Blk 106 Clementi St 12
#01-60 Sunset Way Singapore
Tel: +65 6468 9188

Tenza Izakaya
Blk 106 Clementi St 12
#01-38D Sunset Way Singapore
Tel: +65 6773 0093

The Daily Scoop

The bloody hot weather is the perfect excuse for you to indulge in ice cream! Waffles, brownies and ice cream – I will have them everyday!

41 Sunset Way #01-04
Clementi Arcade Singapore
Tel: +65 6463 3365

* * *

If you are a regular at Holland Village, why don’t you check out the restaurants at Sunset Way for a change? Alright, you know the rules – tell me which Sunset Way restaurants have you been to!

Dining Guides of Restaurants in Singapore:
Chip Bee Gardens Restaurants
Dempsey Road Restaurants
Greenwood Avenue Restaurants
Holland Village Restaurants
Orchard Road Restaurants
Rochester Park Restaurants

The Daily Scoop is one of the earlier homemade ice cream places in Singapore. They started off with a small cafe at Clementi Arcade off Sunset Way, and recently opened another new outlet at Chips Bee Garden. It has been almost three years since my last visit, and I thought that was a good enough reason for an ice cream party!

My dear friend urged me to order the brownie as she had the Daily Scoop’s waffle before. Maybe I will never find out if the waffles here are any good, but one thing’s for sure – the brownies are worth a try.

Time ticked by slowly as the ice cream melted in slow progression. All I wanted was to stop the damned second hand from ticking so that I’d have time to savor that precious minute with the ice cream — but alas, time still went by.

I can’t exactly remember the name of the ice-cream that you see on top of the brownie, but I think it is Salted Mister Brown. If it was up to me, I would definitely name it as the-tasty-scoop-of-salted-caramel-with-brownie-chips. Alright, apparently I’m not the best person to give suggestions for names. But the Salted Mister Brown which consisted of a salted caramel base with dashes of brownie in between, was a fantastic option to go along with the warm and chocolate-y brownie.

Oh God, I miss A&W! Will someone please bring them back to Singapore?

I’m one hundred percent sure that no one else can do a better Root Beer Float than A&W. It’s not because they have better root beer or ice cream, but the A&W root beer float is a part of our childhood memory that is irreplaceable. Using the excuse of ‘hot weather’, we ordered the Root Beer float with a scoop of honey vanilla ice cream from The Daily Scoop.

The Honey Vanilla wasn’t too bad with a subtle sweetness of honey captured in the ice cream. But I’m a big fan of Vanilla ice cream, and I think no one should mess with it. Just give me a scoop of vanilla ice cream with lots of vanilla bean specks.

Okay I think I am getting a little long-winded. It’s just two bloody scoops of ice cream, so get your ass off and head down to The Daily Scoop at Chips Bee Garden or Sunset Way.

Question: Which ice cream parlor(s) serve the best ice cream in Singapore? Or rather, which are your favorite ice cream parlours in Singapore?

Restaurant Review
The Daily Scoop Singapore
41 Sunset Way #01-04
Clementi Arcade Singapore
Tel: +65 6463 3365

Blk 43 Jalan Merah Saga #01-78
Chip Bee Gardens Singapore
Tel: +65 6475 3128

You already know by now, I’m sure, that I like desserts. However, it does get me into trouble as I constantly (read: all the time) think about them and the craving just won’t go away. At least not until I satisfied the sweet tooth. So much so that I eat desserts first, and I can even skipped the main course for the sweet stuff.

Anyway, our initial plan was to have desserts for lunch at Buttercake n Cream – only desserts and nothing else. But we just couldn’t resist the kurobuta pork that was waving at us, I mean who can?

Buttercake n Cream was formerly known as Peaberry & Pretzel (selling German food), but the owners have since changed the concept to an ice cream parlour and dessert place. They are famous for their sundaes, and when I heard that they are serving sundaes, the first thing that came to my mind was MacDonald’s hot chocolate fudge. But trust me, their sundaes are really much better than that; we were considering between their berry berry good and Apple Pie Ala Mode ($7) since we didn’t want chocolate or banana in their other options, and we had the latter.

On paper, it was two scoops of vanilla ice cream, with apple pie fillings and almond crumble. Spotting the speckles of vanilla beans was enough to make my heart flutter, and surprisingly, the manner in which they deconstructed the apple pie ice cream (as we like to call it) turns out to be good. I like how the almond crumble provided the crunch while the apple pie filling added an tangy touch to the cold vanilla ice cream.

Tiramisu. Say it with me: Ti-ra-mi-su!

Desserts too, are special. Why end off your meal with a cup of espresso or a shot of alcohol when you can have soaked sponge fingers into both of them, with the mascarpone special that will set tongues wagging and licking at the whipping combination of coffee-liquor-mascarpone. And there’s the most wonderful cocoa powder sprinkled on top of the fluffy mixture which makes you go: oh-my-it-is-so-good!

As our spoon cuts into the Tiramisu ($5.50), the top cocoa powder layer gave way and filled our spoon. Eaten separately, the soaked finger layer tasted like wet biscuit with espresso, and the masarpone like any other ordinary cream, but combine both together, the result is totally different. The different layers seem to fuse perfectly, and the effect is a yummy sensation.

Maybe it’s just me, but honestly, all tiramisu taste good to me; how bad can a tiramisu be? Okay, you are thinking about the really lousy one; what I meant was between the pretty decent, and the very good one. This means us to the question: is a good tiramisu one that has a) strong liqueur taste b) no liqueur or c) a good mixture of both espresso and liqueur? Some people swear by the strong liqueur taste lingering in the tiramisu, while the original tiramisu actually do not have any alcohol as they were meant for children. There’s no such thing as a best tiramisu, everybody have a different preference to the espresso-alcohol proportion.

I feel silly discussing this with you, but the-best-tiramisu has been over-debated for centuries. But who cares? I like all tiramisu.

Here’s another reason for you to explore Sunset way, TGIF!

Buttercake N Cream
Blk 106 Clementi St 12
(Sunset way) #01-52
Tel: 6777 3477

There’s no other meat that can get me excited like kurobuta pork, not even wagyu. I know the Japanese beef is great, but my heart is already stolen the first time I had kurobuta.

I was skeptical when I saw that Grill-out is offering the kurobuta T-bone as part of their set lunch at only $11.50. Admittedly, the cut is T-bone and not the prized collar bone, but still, it’s kurobuta – the pork version of Kobe beef. Is this some gimmick? No, wait, cancel the last part.

Ho ho, just look at that piece of meat up there! It looks so sexy right? All my doubts were gone the moment I had the first bite. The pork was everything you could ask for; tender, juicy, with the fats providing the melt-in-the-mouth sensation: it was good!

You have to try kurobuta pork unless a) you absolutely hate and will not touch pork, or b) you want to save it for me. Aww.. Jokes aside, I think it’s important that you understand my point – get your hands on a piece of kurobuta pork, now!

Despite being very hungry, we only ordered one main course to share as we had an eye for the desserts next door. But I will definitely come back for the other premium meats they offered. If you are a meat-lover, here’s the place for you!

Grilled-out!
Blk 106 Clementi st 12
Sunset way #01-38E
Tel: 6774 7001

But having mutiple locations doesn’t necessary mean that it’ll be good for the business, even thought you have more accessible points, but the higher costs which comes along with it will poses a difficulty to the operators. However, the issue we are more concern with, will be the drop in quality of the food.

It is a common scene in the F&B industry with the increase in branches, the quality of the food will somehow be affected, and not on par with their original outlet. That’s why i don’t trust franchising, or the commercial restaurants. It can be a dilemma, and expanding should always be taken into consideration seriously.

Having went to Rong Guang @ Alexander Village, I was expecting the same standards at their other branch located at Ulu Pandan, near Sunset way. However, the same experience was not replicated this time round.

Rong Guang @ Ulu Pandan was much bigger than the one at Alexander Village (AV), they had their own area, which was spacious and could seat many. Ventilation was definitely much better than the stuffy hawker centre at AV. But the business there wasn’t as good, which only made us wonder why.

BBQ Sambal sting ray ($14)

The notable difference with the one at AV was the pricing. The small, medium and large portions were $10, 12, and 14 respectively, was more expensive than the pricing at AV, at $8, 10, 13. The sting ray here was not bigger than the one at AV, thus i concluded the higher price was because of their higher rental fee.

Sambal Kang Kong ($8)

One of the most popular dish in Zi-char stores, the sambal kang kong that we had was fierce and fiery with the sambal belachan. But the vegetables were too “old” and lacked the crunch, which rendered fail for this one.

Sweet & sour pork ($8)

I think i never mentioned before that i absolutely love sweet & sour pork, since my recent posts didn’t featured any at all. I’ve been looking around for good sweet & sour pork, but sadly to say, i couldn’t find any.

Good sweet and sour pork, must have the right amount of bite in the pork and the not-so-sweet nor the not-so-sour taste in the sauce. Needless to say, the one here wasn’t up to my expectations.

Prawn paste chicken ($8)

The prawn paste chicken, or Har Cheong Kai, was another dish that we always ordered at zi-char store. Its always freshly fried, not too oily, crispy on the skin, and juicy in the meat. With a twist of lemon on it, no wonder Har Cheong Kai is always a crowd favourite.

But the description that i had just mentioned was not about Rong Guang’s version. The prawn paste flavour was quite tame, and not strong enough. For a fried chicken its still all right, but it didn’t make the cut for a prawn paste chicken.

Prawn roll ($8)

As a kid, i always look forward to Chinese new year since my grandmother will always prepared lots of prawn roll, or heh zhor. The waterchestnuts and minced prawn and pork wrapped within the crispy skin, dipped in the sweet sauce, was always addictive.

Total Bill was $50.3 for 4 person, and like what i mentioned, prices here are slightly more than their original location at AV, and I think that food quality-wise, AV also fared better than the one here. Serving was very fast, less than 5 minutes for the dishes to be cook since there wasn’t much people eating there.

This actually bring about another question, since there aren’t much customers, which could mean that there is a possibility that the food is not as fresh as compared to AV which had better customers flow. Again, this is based on my personal opinion, and does not reflect the truth for Rong Guang. But for me, i’ll go back to Rong Guang @ Alexander Village, not this one.

Rong Guang BBQ seafood
301 Ulu Pandan road
Tel: 6468 8290

Balmoral Bakery is a very old-school bakery which is evident from the box they use for their bakes. Located at Sunset way, the bakery offers the type of breads and pastries which we grow up together with, but sadly are slowly disappearing from our sight.

Under the “undue” influence of my secret food partner, we jogged from our place to Sunset way, and pay the bakery a visit. She introduced me to Balmoral Bakery as she has been munching on their breads since young.

Egg tart ($1)

The egg tart at Balmoral is those ‘watery’ type, my secret food partner love this type of egg tart, but i prefer those with crusty sides and firmer egg-fillings.

Custard Buns ($1.1)

The custard buns are the star of the show! Billed as Balmoral Bakery’s signature item, the custard buns are really excellent! There are other customers who brought half a dozen or more at a go. Must try!!

Cake ($1)

The cake is the very traditional type where you can only get at such bakeries, nowadays seldom do we still see such cakes around, well maybe if your neighbor still has such old-school bakeries around.

Char-siew Sau ($1)

The char-siew sau is cripsy and the char siew inside sweet!

Cake with cream in centre ($1.20)

I liked this one! The cake is very soft and fluffy, whipped cream in the center, and sugar white powder spread on top.

Total Bill for 5 items comes up to $5.50. I only brought 5 items as this is my first time there, but my secret food partner brought about more than 10 items!

The bread and pastries at Balmoral Bakery are mostly in the range of $0.80-$1.50, and there are really a lot of different types of traditional bakes which isn’t so commonly found nowadays. Go, and relieve your childhood memories!

Balmoral Bakery
Blk 105 Clementi St 12 (Sunset Way)
#01-08
Tel: 6779 2064

” Relieve your childhood memories! “

A simple family affair at Sunset way, not the many newly opened restaurants there, but beside there, a coffee shop “zi-char” store. Normal folks like us can’t be eating in restaurants and cafe everyday can we?

Fishhead Steamboat ($20)

Well, this is one of their speciality i guess. Fishhead steamboat. The fish was all right, but i was surprised by the amount of other ingredients like vegies and some other stuff they put in. The quantity was certainly there, so if you ordered this, there is not really a need to order another vegetable dish.

Hotplate Tofu ($8)

Like normal hotplate Tofu, nothing much special, and the price is like always.

Sambal Kangkong ($6)

I think i am a sucker for Sambal Kangkong, or at least we always order this when we eat out.

Sweet & Sour pork ($6)

This dish really fails, big time. I was having a desire for Sweet & sour pork which is one of my fav dishes, but here they do it bad. Eh, the pork was too soft, not Q at all, do not have the good pork ‘taste’. Mayb the quality of the pork is to be questioned, and also mayb the skill of cooking this dish is not up there yet. O well

Prawn paste Chicken ($6)

This was quite acceptable i guess. As in some Zi-char store really mess up this dish, while some can do it very well. In this case, they didn’t mess it up, nor did they do it superbly. So i say, not bad.

All in all, like what i say, a simple family affair which does not burns you in the pocket if you are lazy to cook and choose to dine out. Total bill was $48.80 for 4 person. The ‘meats’, ‘vegies’ are all relatively cheap at mostly $6 a dish. So many skip the fish, and order more of the meats and vegies? We went to Daily Scoop for ice-cream treats. Watch this space.

Seafood park
Blk 107 Clementi St 12 #01-k1
Tel: 67757549

” Nothing beats eating together with your family and loved ones “