Kraze Burgers

2 Bayfront Avenue, The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands (Canal level), Singapore 018972

Overpriced burgers from Korea. 

EwF by Everything with Fries

Orchard Central, 181 Orchard Road #01-24/25 s238896 (Somerset)

I'm going to say something that would probably get me sued in France. But please people, there are way better burger joints than this place, even Carls Jr is better! In other words, so not worth eating. 

Nantsuttei Ramen

Orchard Central #07-12/13

I was walking along the upper levels of Orchard Central when I noticed this new ramen store that opened up. For some reason, there's a huge number of such chains opening up suddenly in Singapore.

Menya Musashi

301 Upper Thomson Road, #01-112, Thomson Plaza

So...more Ramen....

HoneyBee BBQ & Grill

Ended up trying this on a whim. 

Itacho Sushi

Plaza Singapura, #02-35

You usually see a long queue of people outside this restaurant. Is it worth it though?

Tonkichi

181 Orchard Road, Orchard Central, #07-06
Tel: 6238 7976

Mmm...Katsu....I mean cutlets...

Skinny Pizza

It's logo really should be Skinny Pizza: What a gyp.

RS Deli

244R Upper Thomson Road, Thomson Garden Estate, Singapore 574369

Ootoya

181 Orchard Road

#08-12 Orchard Central

Tel: 66816653

Apparently there are a lot of restaurants that 'specialise' in pork katsu now in SG...

Brownice

Sin Ming Centre
8 Sin Ming Road #01-03
Singapore 575628

Nasi Lemak Kukus

908 Upper Thomson Road

Right, so I managed to drop by this place near my house for dinner. It was convenient and I really didn't want to travel too far for a simple meal.

NeLi's Ice Cream

233 Upper Thomson Rd  574364

So I tried this new Ice Cream place down at Upper Thomson Road. Apparently a LOT of dessert places have been popping up along that stretch of road; ranging from Udders to Salted Caramel to Wafflelicious. Now this is the newest one that has popped up so far. 

Covelli Italian Bistro & Wine Bar

181 Orchard Road, #B2-13/22 Orchard Central

So me and my friend found this restaurant AAAAAALLL the way at the bottom of Orchard Central, in a place where we didn't even realise existed. That probably doesn't say much about its business prospects. 


The atmosphere was pretty decent and the restaurant itself was nice and roomy so you didn't have this feeling of being cramped together. However, it's literally in the middle of somewhere most people don't know existed, in a shopping center that already has very few people visiting it. 


So anyway, we tried it out. I ordered calamaris for a starter and pizza as a main. However, the weird thing was that the pizza arrived way before the calamaris did. That's actually a no-no if you want to pretend to be a fine dining restaurant. 


Anyway, when the calamari finally arrived, they were fine except for one major detail. They were too soft. Usually, I would expect breaded calamari to be a bit firmer but that may just be a personal thing. 

Now for the pizza. It was the only thing I felt was interesting from the menu. On an unrelated side note, the tray it's being served on? That's from IKEA -_-  As for the pizza itself, it was decent but I felt that it basically lacked...toppings. It just didn't have enough toppings to basically make it appetizing. 


Overall, the food was decent but it's not really someplace I would visit again.


End Result: 4.5/10

Cold Rock Ice Creamery

313 Orchard Road, #02-50

I have GOT TO stop letting my sense of curiousity dictate what I eat. While sometimes it pays off, sometimes it goes really really bad. Like this for instance. Well, I guess I sort of suspected what I would be getting into when the frigging creation is called "Break the Law" in the first place.

The House of Robert Timms

501 Orchard Rd, Singapore 238880

Right, so I dropped by this place the other day out of curiousity. The decor is fairly nice but there is one thing that will definitely grab your attention once you have a chance to sit down and peruse through their menu. That's the fact that the place is very, very expensive. How expensive is it? Well, steaks start at 40++ SGD and the only dishes below that price are mostly sandwiches, wraps and pasta. Well, it's not like I haven't paid that much for a steak before but I just wasn't feeling it from this particular joint. Nonetheless, I decided to try it out anyway. 

So I ordered myself a main and a drink of Hazelnut frappe; without the whipped cream. The drink was fairly decent but again, it was somewhat overpriced. I consider the coffee I took at Tea Cosy to be better. And cheaper to boot. 

And then finally, the steak came. I ordered a T-bone and I'll say this, it was large. But it's hard to fuck up steak. Most restaurants can do a decent or average steak but it's hard to find a truly delicious steak. 


With that said, how was the steak? Well, it was...sad to say, average. Granted, it's a huge portion of meat so perhaps the average taste could be balanced by the fact that it's a fairly large serving. However, what tips the balance is really the price. Comparing the steak at Robert Timms to the steak at TGIF (which is another restaurant whose steak I frequently eat), which is also about the same price point, I would have to say TGIF wins hands down. And by quite a substantial amount as well. 


So there we have it, large servings but fairly bland taste. It just wasn't worth the 50 bucks I paid for it since the meat itself probably only cost at most 1/3 of that price. For the remaining 2/3, I'd expect the restaurant to be able to cook it better to add more value to the meat.


I was planning to try some of their deserts but considering a slice of pie costs 14 after tax and feeling somewhat let down by their mains, I decided to  skip it. As it is, this meal cost me 60+


End Result: 3/10

Tea Cosy

Plaza Singapura #05-10
www.tenthousandangels.com.sg

Had a chance to drop by this unique looking cafe/restaurant the other day. In case people haven't spotted it before, it's by Spotlight on the 5th floor and it really, really doesn't look like a restaurant.

This is what it looks like from the outside. I've passed by it several times before without even realising it was a restaurant. It looked like an accessories shop to me, and being situated next to Spotlight didn't help either.


However, this time I decided to go in and try it. I ended up trying something new and ordered their set dinner menu where the main was a large Portebello Mushroom wrapped with bacon and with an egg somewhere in the package. I don't know where it was, but it was pretty good. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First, they served us drinks; good news for everyone, this restaurant DOES give free ice water despite looking like the type that doesn't. My set came with a choice of 3 drinks , coffee, tea or lemonade. But I chose to upgrade to their special Minty Coffee. 

Yes, that IS the mint at the bottom. Anyway, it wasn't bad and you could certainly taste the mint. I'm not certain I would pay the full 6 dollars for the drink but since upgrading only cost me 3 bucks extra on top of the meal, I'd say it was worth it.

Next came the soup. The soup itself was nothing special but what stood out for me was the bread they served with the soup. It's not clear in the photo but there is a layer of something on top of the bread. It's not butter but rather, it tasted like the top of a Portuguese egg tart. 

Finally, came the main. That bacon wrapped goodness? That's the portabello mushroom with egg somewhere in the middle. Despite my initial apprehensions (mostly because in the menu, the word Mushroom was in singular form), I found it to be quite filling and tasty. It came with loads of mashed potatoes at the bottom and some greens as well.

And finally, at the end to top it all off, the desert, Creme brulee. Well, it was nice but I wouldn't say it's outstanding in anyway. I found the top coating a bit too thick but that would just be my own preference. Either way, it's not a meal that I can fault.


What was also nice was the fact that they don't charge GST at this place. Only service charge. So this meal ended up costing me about 29SGD in total after the service charge, which wasn't bad because frankly, I've had far worse for more expensive. On the plus side, the service staff was friendly, competent and actually fairly attentive, often appearing to clear my plate a few minutes after I was done with it. So yes, I would probably recommend this place. 


End Result: 8/10

FatBoys Burger Bar

187 Upper Thomson Road, Yew Lian Park, Singapore 574335

So I dropped by the nearby Fatboys burger bar the other day. It's not the first time I've been there but I go back occasionally because there aren't many places in SG that specialise in making burgers (The Handburger shops suck), plus the burgers are pretty big which is always good.


Anyway, I had a Fat Basterd, which is basically 2 beef patties, add an egg, slices of bacon and some cheese. Despite how I make it sound, it's pretty filling and tasty. Although that might just be the bacon. Bacon makes most things awesome.

Right, so that's the Fat Basterd. It comes with some lettuce and a single slice of tomato and some fries. 

Here you can see the bacon strips included with the burger. I like these ones because unlike a lot of other bacon in other burgers, these ones are fairly thick and meaty instead of being thin and stringy. 


Anyway, as far as the burgers go, I would recommend them. They do serve something else other than just burgers for their main courses though, but I've never tried them before. It's mostly a mix of common western food such as steak, fish and chips , chicken etc. I just figure 'hey, if I'm in a burger bar, I should order the burgers'. 


Okay, so that's the food. How is the service? Well, I haven't had anything go wrong with my orders with them or anything that's a major issue to complain about. It's just that sometimes the way their staff are, sometimes I get the feeling I'm being told to stop bothering them with stuff like 'can we order yet?' or 'can we get the bill yet?'. It's not something that is a huge negative but I wouldn't be amiss if I said I felt that their service could do with some improvement. 


End Result: 7/10

Tamaya Dining

Tamaya Dining

45 Cuppage Road, Cuppage Terrace

Was out on town with a friend the other night and we were wandering about for a new restaurant to try when we happened across this restaurant. It seemed like it had a decent amount of patrons (usually we find it unsettling when restaurants have NOBODY around during dinnertime)so we decided to try it out.


We were ushered upstairs into a room with traditional Japanese seating, where you have to take off your shoes and enter a small hall with tatami mats. There was almost no one else up here, only 2 other tables filled with Japanese businessmen (whom I could hear talking all the way throughout dinner)


Anyway, we ordered our food and after a while my friends portions arrived first. However, the waitress had made a mistake as my friend had wanted the fried breaded filet of pork but she brought him pork skewers. Now, both the names start with Kurobuta (black pig) but my friend pointed at the picture in the menu for her when ordering and the two items weren't even on the same page. And then instead of taking it back, she said "Sorry, is this okay?" referring to the pork skewers. Anyway, my friend decided not to make a fuss although I would have just told her to bring it back.


We had 3 appetizers; being the kurobuta, soft-shelled crab and grilled squid, and 2 mains; yakisoba and whatever the picture is above (some sort of ironpot rice). The soft-shelled crab was decent, supposedly the kurobuta was decent as well, although the grilled squid was a bit too dry and mayo they gave with it just tasted weird. My friend initially thought they mixed wasabi in with the mayo but it didn't really taste like wasabi.

The ironpot rice was okay but it took close to 30 mins to arrive. My friend had gotten his main and finished it before my food arrived -_-. Btw, the portions are really small. That bowl of rice? It cost me 14SGD and it was mostly rice with the only toppings the paltry amount you see in the pic above (which consisted of 4 slices of salmon and some fish roe). 

So in the end, would I go there again? No. While the food was decent and I mean decent in a completely average way, the price really really killed it for me. 14 dollars for this?? I could pay 4 bucks more at Waraku and get 2x the serving size PLUS eel. 


End result: 4/10