Jumbo Seafood, East Coast Seafood Centre

Disappointing Dinner!

It was my first time dining at Jumbo Seafood East Coast outlet. I tried the ones at Serangoon Gardens and Singapore Indoor Stadium few years ago and found the food still up to my expectations. However, I was so disappointed with the taste of the food which I ordered at this outlet on a particular Saturday.

1. Scallop wrapped in Yam Ring – 5/10
The yam paste didn’t taste fresh and it was kind of mushy and too watery and bland.
Look at the miserable thinly slices of scallop. It has been harden after deep-frying.



2. Salted Egg Golden Prawns – 6/10
It tasted bland despite it was coated with salted egg yolk. Not salty nor sweet nor sour nor whatever. However, the prawns were fresh and crunchy and I added points due to this factor.



3. Chlli Crabs 1.2kg – 5/10
We asked for a replacement as the claws were “hollow”. The flesh was merely about 50% filled inside the claw.



The picture below was after replacement. The claws were still “hollow” but were slightly better than the first plate. The manager said that he will give feedback to their supplier and on the quality of the crabs. I really wonder what went wrong.


It was such a disappointing dinner. I will still visit Jumbo but not at this outlet. I heard from friends that the Dempsey outlet serves much better quality food. Well, I look forward to trying the food at Dempsey outlet.

My Overall Verdict: 5.5/10


Address:
Jumbo Seafood
Blk 1206 East Coast Parkway
#01-07/08
East Coast Seafood Centre
Singapore 449883

Tel: 6442 3435
Fax: 6444 5373

Operating Hours:
Dinner only: 5.00pm - 12.00 midnight

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

Union Farm Eating House, Clementi

Limited Menu Dishes..

Union Farm Eating House is located very near to the Maju Camp, along Clementi Road. The place was a little ULU (remote). From the main road, we can still catch the view of this “kampong-type” restaurant.

Having passing by this place for several times, we decided to come by for dinner.





Their menu items were so limited. Example: For the fish, they only had the deep fried version that were served with gravy; for the vegetables, they didn’t even have kang kong, sweet potato leave, spinach, broccoli, etc..

Look at the below bill receipt on the items they served.


Items we ordered were:


1. Paper-wrapped chicken, Chee Pow Kai (纸包鸡) $12
The minimum order was 10 pieces for $12. The chicken pieces were too oily for us. The chicken pieces used were either from chicken drums or thighs.



2. Vegetable, Xiao Bai Cai with oyster sauce $7
The oyster sauce seemed to be poured directly from those that can be bought from the Supermarket. It was so thick and salty.


3. Bee Hoon, dry $3
The bee hoon was so bland. We could not even finish half of it.



Total bill came up to $26.60.

My Overall Verdict: -

We merely finished half of what were served to us. Perhaps the food really did not suit our taste. Therefore, don’t think we will come back here again.

Address:
Union Farm Eating House
435A Clementi Road
Singapore 599474

Tel: 6466 2776

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)

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

Marks & Spencer, Great World City

Ocean Pie and Breaded Haddock made in UK..

I have been searching for UK version’s Fish Pie and Fish & Chips in many high-end supermarkets ever since I came back from UK last year March. It seems that they can be found only at the Marks & Spencer.

I bought the Ocean Pie and Chunky Breaded Haddock from the Marks & Spencer at Great World Outlet. The prices were slightly steep but still worth the buy since I craved for them for quite some times already. It costs me a total of about $49.80 for these two items.

I toasted both items using my bread toaster since I am too lazy to fry the breaded fish which I believe it would taste nicer that way.



1. Ocean Pie – Atlantic Haddock in a Parsley Sauce
The sauce was creamy but the flavour was still not there. I still prefer the “Young’s” brand which I had in UK. This is their website http://www.youngsseafood.co.uk/default.asp. Their products can be easily found in UK supermarkets.



2. Chunky Breaded Haddock
By toasting it, the crust was not too oily and it was healthier but the crispiness was not there. The Haddock was however still very fresh.




The above food inspired me to make my own Fish Pie from the recipe books which I bought in Scotland. I shall make myself one of these days.

Address:
Marks & Spencer
Food Section
Great World City

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