Raffles Marina Bistro, Tuas, Revisited

No regrets. Still as Yummy!

I revisited this place again. It was then raining so heavily and the wind was so strong that we have to force ourselves sittng indoor (away from the sea view). Sigh..

Our orders this time:

1. Chicken Wings (1/2 dozen) $11.00 – 9/10
They are still as good. Yummy!


2. Fish & Chips $10.00 – 7/10
The battered fish fillet is fried to golden brown and very crispy on the outside. Not a bad choice. Considering it is merely a $10 item, it is definitely value for the money.


With another two glasses of beer, total bill came up to $43.57.



Overall Verdict: 8/10


Address:
Marina Bistro
10 Tuas West Drive
Raffles Marina
Singapore 638404
http://www.rafflesmarina.com.sg/clubhouse_bis.htm

For reservations, call Tel: 6869 2299

Operating Hours:
Daily: 8.00am to 10.00pm (last order 9.30pm)

Café Cartel, Bukit Panjang Plaza

Café standard?

Our orders for a simple dinner:

1. Spicy Chicken Wings $5.80 – 2/10
I am quite disappointed with the spicy wings. It is tasteless, not spicy & too floury.


2. Spicy Chicken Bolognese $12.00 – 6/10
The Bolognese sauce is little sourish, sweet & spicy but it is too water and diluted. The spaghetti texture is overcooked, no longer springy.



3. Root Beer Float $4.20 – 4/10
How I miss A&W’s root beer float!


Total bill came up to $25.85.


Overall Verdict: 4/10

Despite the disappointment for this meal, I will still go for their Chicken Chef’s Salad and St Louis Pork Ribs which I will give them 7/10 & 8/10 respectively.


Address:
Café Cartel
1 Jelebu Road
#01-55/59
Bukit Panjang Plaza
Singapore 677743

Tel: 6767 7900

Operating Hours:
Mon-Fri, Eve of Public Holiday: 11:30am-10.00pm
Sat, Sun, Public Holiday: 8.30am-10.00pm

Raffles Marina Bistro, Tuas

Good food and good place!

This restaurant serves both Asian and Western delicacies. It has many varieties of choices such as chicken rice, char kway teow, Indian curry, Naan, fish & chips, etc..

Our orders:

1. Mutton Satay (1/2 dozen) $6.00 – 8/10
The mutton satay is tender and juicy and the mutton smell is not that strong too. The satay peanut gravy is so thick and full of peanut chunks.



2. Chicken Wings (1/2 dozen) $11.00 – 9/10
Damn good chicken wings. They are so crispy, juicy and flavorful but the bad point is that they are oily too.


3. Grilled Halibut $15.50 – 6/10
The halibut fillet is tender but a bit “fishy” smell.


Total bill came up to $49.11.



Overall Verdict: 8/10


Address:
Marina Bistro
10 Tuas West Drive
Raffles Marina
Singapore 638404
http://www.rafflesmarina.com.sg/clubhouse_bis.htm

For reservations, call Tel: 6869 2299

Operating Hours:
Daily: 8.00am to 10.00pm (last order 9.30pm)

Hard Rock Café, HPL House at Cuscaden Road

Bachelorette Party cum Birthday Party Celebrations..

We had two stars for the night. Here comes the Shimmering stars..


As usual, we ordered few different dishes for sharing. I will not give any ratings on the foods as we ate the foods much later after they were served to us as we were playing games.

Ours orders were:

1. Jumbo Combo (x2) $50
It is their most popular starters and it includes Santa Fe Spring Rolls, Hickory-Smoked Chicken Wings, Onion Rings, Potato Skins and Tupelo Chicken Tenders. They were served with four different sauces for mixing and matching.


2. Fish N Chips (x2) $25.
One of it was free as there was a promotion for Citibank Credit Card.


3. Trio Combo $32
This was a Hickory Smoked Bar-B-Que Combo. It consisted of Bar-B-Que Ribs, Bar-B-Que Chicken and Smoked Pulled-Pork. They were served with fries, ranch beans and fresh coleslaw.


4. New Zealand Pepper Steak $26


5. Pulled Pork Sandwiches $20
We were too full to eat this item. Therefore, we requested for this item to be take away instead.


Total bill came up to $204.80.


The foods already turned cold and those fried items were no longer crispy. Therefore it would not fair for me to comment on them. I shall come to try the hot foods again next time.


Address:
Hard Rock Cafe, Singapore
#02-01 / # 03-01 HPL House
50 Cuscaden Road
Singapore 249724

Website: http://hardrock.com.sg/aboutus.htm

Tel: (65) 6235 5232

Operating Hours:
11.00 am - 2.00 am (Mondays to Fridays)
11.00 am - 3.00 am (Saturday, Sunday & Eve Of Public Holiday)

Merchandise Store Operation Hours:
11.00 am - 2.00 am (Mondays to Fridays)
11.00 am - 3.00 am (Saturday, Sunday & Eve Of Public Holiday)

PastaMania, Cathay Cineleisure

PastaMania is Halal..

I held a farewell lunch for my temp staff with my team at PastaMania at Cathay Cineleisure. I chose this place as one of us is a Muslim and I already ran out of ideas where to bring my team for Halal lunch next time. Sigh..

This was their menu. They were 3 types of Combos to choose. Their full Combo Set A comes with Soup of the day, Garlic Bread and a drink.

The Toasted Garlic Bread was not bad and crispy but slightly oily. It could be due to the generous garlic butter spread. – 7/10.


Since there were six of us, I ordered additional BBQ Chicken Wings for all of us. The Chicken wings were disappointing. The texture was tough and lack of flavor. Worst, they had a strong frozen smell. – 2/10.


My main is Spicy Crayfish Spaghetti. – 5/10.
It was sweet and not spicy enough. The crayfish was mushy.



Total bill came to $99.20. I don’t find it value for money.



Overall Verdict: 4/10

I will still give this place a chance if I have craving for pasta and am looking for a cheaper version.


Address:
PastaMania - Cathay Cineleisure Branch
8 Grange Road
#02-23
Cathay Cineleisure Orchard
Singapore 239695

Tel: 6737 1379

Operating Hours:
Sun-Thu: 10.30am - 10.30pm
Fri-Sat: 10.30am - 3.00am

BlooiE's Roadhouse Restaurant & Pub, Upper Bukit Timah The Rail Mall

My Favourite burgers in Singapore..

I first patronizd BlooiE’s Roadhouse Bar & Grill at the Jalan Tua Kong outlet about three years ago. My friend drove me there for dinner since the next day was a weekend. That outlet was quite isolated but quite a good place for chilling out. However, that was the only time I went there since the accessibility was not that convenient for me, a non-driver.

That time, I had BlooiE's Bacon Mushroom Cheese Burger and that was the best burger I ever tried. I missed that so much so I started to patronize BlooiE’s at the Science Park and The Rail Mail outlets in the last two years. The standards of those outlets were more or less the same. The combination of the ingredients used in the burgers made it so tasty, juicy and flavourful.

Despite having visited BlooiE’s a few times, I do not have the photos of the past visits as I started to take photos and created my food blog this year only.

This visit, we started with a very cold beer. See this frozen mug and u will know how cold the beer was.


This was their Menu on their famous BlooiE’s burgers.


They have quite a few selections of condiments – HP Brown sauce, Chilli sauce, Ketchup, Mustard, Tabasco, Pepper and Salt.


As there were only two of us, we ordered two items only.

1. Fish Fingers $12.80 – 7/10
This is easy and convenient to eat because of its finger size. They didn’t taste fishy too.



2. BlooiE's Bacon Mushroom Cheese Burger $16.80 – 8/10
I had this BlooiE's Bacon Mushroom Cheeseburger few times at the various outlets. It was served with coleslaw and a choice of their special cajun fries or potato salad. The 180g beef patty was a little dry but it went well with the sliced mushroom and its mushroom sauce, crispy bacon, melted cheese etc.. It was divine! Thumbs up!



Total bill came up to $43.30.



Overall Verdict: 7.5/10

I will definitely come back as and when I have the carving for its burger.

Address:
BlooiE's Roadhouse Restaurant & Pub, The Rail Mall
426/428 Upper Bukit Timah Road
Singapore 678053

Tel : 6766 1588

Operating Hours:
Sunday to Thursday: 11am – 12midnight
Friday & Saturday: 11am – 1am

Manchester United Café Bar, Boat Quay

Chu’s Birthday Celebration at Boat Quay..

Last night, the seven of us celebrated Chu’s Birthday at Manchester United Café Bar at Boat Quay. This café bar was newly opened last December 2008.

This is the outlook of the Manchester United Café Bar.

It was a Thursday night and there wasn’t much crowd compared to The Penny Black Bar and Harry’s Bar, which were merely few doors away.

We started off with 6 full-time Hoegaarden beers and 2 of us don’t drink.


Look at Bee the gulper below.


Most of my friends were already very hungry when we reached there around 7pm as they either skipped their lunch or had a very light lunch. Therefore, we ordered quite a lot considering we are all females.

Look at our orders below:

1. Devils' Wings $13 x 2 – 7/10
The chicken wings were crispy and well marinated. Some of us prefer these Devils’ wings to Timbre’s Buffalo wings.


2. Manchester Combo Platter $28 x 2 – 6/10
It consisted of veal sausages wrapped with chicken bacon (also known as horseback), devil’s wing, beef short rib and onion rings. It can serve 2 to 4 persons. The veal sausage was not that fantastic. I prefer Scottish sausage instead. The devils’ wing as shared earlier was very good. The beef short rib was tender but lack of flavour.


3. Old English Mixed Grill $28 x 2 – 6/10
It consisted of grilled chicken, beef short rib and sausage with homemade BBQ sauce. The grilled chicken was ordinary. The beef short rib tasted the same as the one in Manchester Combo Platter. The sausage tasted like chicken. There’s no pork in their menu?


4. Fish N Chips $17.90 x 2 – 3/10
I was so disappointed with their Fish N Chips. Since it was stated as Traditional English Battered fillet of fish , I expect their fried fish was crispy and chunky. However, it turned out to be so soggy and soft.


Look at the flesh of the fish. The batter was thicker than the fish fillet inside the batter. OMG! Also, their chips (fries) were so ordinary.


5. Champions Burger $16.90 x 1 – 6/10
The beef patty (burger) was a little too dry, not juicy enough but the caramelized onion was good. Chicken bacon and the melted cheddar cheese were not too bad.


6. Miniature Chocolate Amer Cake from Bakerzin $19.15 – 8/10
We bought Chu a miniature Chocolate Amer Cake from Bakerzin. It was a flourless chocolate sponge layered with bitter chocolate mousse. Luckily, the cake was very small. Else we might not be able to finish the cake after a hearty meal. This cake was very delicious and appetizing.


Chu was making her wishes..


Is she Chu or Goldfish? Hmmm..


The total bill for last night’s dinner amounted to $208.65. Thanks to Chu for giving us this treat.


Considering the 20% discounts given, the café bar’s good service and the happy moments we had, it still worth the money spent.

Overall verdict: 5.6/10


Address:
Manchester United Café Bar
32 Boat Quay
Singapore 049821
Website: http://www.manutd-cafe.com/

Tel: 6533 5880

Operating Hours:
Sun to Thu 11am to 1am
Fri, Sat & eve of public holiday 11am to 2am

Azur, Crowne Plaza Changi Airport T3

Wide selections of breakfast buffet items at Crowne Plaza Hotel..

Went for the breakfast buffet at Azur Restaurant, Crowne Plaza Hotel this morning. The ambience was good and staff were friendly too.

One thing I like most about this buffet spread was the wide selections of breads and pastries. Remember I am a bread-lover? Haha!

See the picture below. I was so tempted by its Bread Counter. They offered spreads such as French butter, miniature Bonne Maman strawberry, apricot and orange preserves, peanut butter and kaya.



Here come our dishes which were shared between my friend and I.

1. Asian – 6/10
The Asian food in this spread was quite disappointing. The Char Siew Bao filling was not appetizing as we cannot taste the pork. Was it because the pork was too minced and too much starch was added? The Char Siew Sor crust could have tasted better if it was still flaky but still, the filling was not what I like. The scallop dumpling starch skin was too thick and we cannot taste the scallop in the filling too. The Soon Kueh was ok – skin not too thick but the filling was a little bland. The Fried Mee Hoon and Nasi lemak rice were ordinary. The sambal shrimp was spicy enough but I cannot taste the crunchiness of the dried shrimp. The sambal egg was a little too sweet and not spicy.


2. Salads – 7/10
Vegetables were fresh. Black Pepper Beef ham was good and not much traced of fats. The Smoked Salmon was fresh too.


3. English Breakfast – 7/10
The streaky bacon was too sinful for two of us. We would prefer the back bacon instead. The “sunny side up” was nicely presented. Grilled Tomato with herbs was good too.


4. Breads, Pastries & Spreads – 8/10
A young female chef saw me grabbing a big cranberry loaf, suggested me slicing the corner of the loaf and toasting it before spreading with some cheese or butter. She said she and other chefs have tried this many times and love it very much. This was what I thought too. Indeed, the cranberry was so good especially when spread it with French butter and preserves. It goes well with peanut butter and kaya too.


5. Cereal pieces with milk – 7/10
A mixture of Cornflakes, Honey Star & Koko Krunch and added with Pura brand Fresh Milk.


6. Otak in Banana leaf – 4/10
Too much starch - cannot taste the fresh fish.


7. Waffle with maple syrup, whipped cream & diced mixed fruit – 5/10
The waffle was tough and too floury.


8. Skim Milk & Soya Milk – 6/10
Healthy drink.



Overall Verdict: 6.5/10

Well, I don’t mind going back for the buffet again if it has 1 for 1 promotion.


Address:
Azur
75 Airport Boulevard
2nd Floor Crowne Plaza Hotel

Tel: 6823 5354

Operating Hours:
All day dining 6am to 11pm
Breakfast Buffet 6am to 10.30pm