Geylang's famous Beef Horfun & durians

Geylang Lorong 9.

The durians were good. The uncle/store owner is this grumpy old man. He likes TRUST. stop picking and choosing the durian as if you know everything about durians and trust him. cos he will choose fantastic bitter sweet durians for you. its good. drinks and tissue paper are on the house. $5/kg.

The Gubak kway teow on the other hand was overpriced, over rated, over tenderized, over everything. at $20 per plate. how can people say its cheap. i dont understand. people have this misconception that hawker fare equates to cheap.

Also had tao huay for $2 a bowl.

Geylang's over rated and over priced.
the only cheap meat there are the ones from china.

Da Paolo il Giardino

Da Paolo il Giardino
501 Bukit Timah Road, #01-05,
Cluny Court. Tel: 6463 9628

I know this place must have been critiqued over three billion times. But here goes.

I've been to this place a couple of times. Never had the discipline to pen it down. The last time i went there was after a horrible incident at home. Details will be spared. And then, lunch sucked after that.

However, the latest time I visited this delightful joint(they've got about 6 outlets) i was swept away. Swept, I tell you.. washed away. fell head over heels.

Ambience
It’s a quaint restaurant at the corner of the row of shophouses situated just outside Botanic Gardens. You will be greeted by a narrow parquet pathway- sides lined with tea lights. There’s the alfresco dining area where diners (or lunchers for that matter) bask in the sun, heat and humidity is carpeted with gravel and sheltered with wooden frames intertwined with tendrils.
Moving into the restaurant is dimly lit where walls are made of horizontally stacked granite slates (very cool) and curtains made of long cylindrical glass tubes. You can see an extremely sterile kitchen through a glass panel displaying shelves of wine glasses.
The lunch crowd includes expats who speak quietly with their children ordering Cokes and punch as if it were free flow.
All in all, very cozy. Very classy. Pairing elements such as wood, glass and slate together with warm lighting. It’s a fool proof combination. A very good place to impress. =)

Service
Naturally, small spaces results in attentive staff. Constantly making sure that you have enough bread, water and that the food is palatable. And of course, attending to your every whim and fancy without making you wait forever. Can I have more vinegrette? Sure. Can I have some ground pepper? Sure.

A word of caution. Waiters are like banks, you see, they like to serve the rich. So dress as if you own a ferarri. And talk as if you’re a UN respresentative. Even if you ain’t any.

Food
Don’t get me started. But I must! Mister and I went there for lunch. So we had the set lunch lah. I’ll just focus on what I had

Bread. There’s only one kind of bread I enjoy- warm bread at these places. Because its soft, chewy and warm. And oh. Did I mention its free flow. Plus olive oil and vinegrette. mMMM-mmmm! But honestly speaking. I love it. (what don’t I love!?)
Appetizer. Parma ham with mozzarella. Parma ham by nature is very salty and will reduce your lifespan by 10%. But trust me, pair it with uncooked mozzarella chunks and it will absolutely be to die for. Plus this cheese is extremely lightly salted which just evens out the flavor. If anything, the cheese adds texture to the whole dish.
Oh yes, don’t discount the two rocket leaves which you thought were just garnishing. If the dish gets a tad too heavy going, have some of the salad and it will clear your palate and gets you ready to clean up whatever that’s left.

Main course. Tenderloin chunks. The main course drizzled with a red wine gravy which makes it more like a luncheon meat. Of course, when I say luncheon meat, I mean meat to be eaten during lunch, not the canned thing you eat with porridge.
I’d usually be very particular over the doneness of the meat. But you can always trust good (and I mean good) luncheon meat to be gentle on the jaw- without specifying how you want it done.
Never ever discount good garnishing. I loved the sautéed mixture of mushrooms, capsicums, squash and cucumber on the side. It’s a tad bit charred, giving more texture and flavor.
Eat it while it’s hot.

Desert. I was dieting that week. Which failed- FYI. Anyway, I opted for the Banana Chocolate Mousse. Oh. Its good. Its really compact, and I mean small but extremely thick with banana mousse and a layer of chocolate mousse on top. *diet doubly fails*. Its not spongey, just very thick and creamy. Banana and chocolate is another fantastic foolproof combination.

Price
Da Paolo has always been more on the pricey side.
$24+++ for set lunch with pasta as the main course
$27+++ for set lunch with meat as the main course.
But it was all worth it.

Overall
Very satisfying. ‘nuff said.

Hanabi Japanese Restaurant

Hanabi Japanese Restaurant Ptd Ltd
559 Bukit Timah Rd
Kings Arcade #01-03 Singapore 269695
64655525

This inconspicuous Japanese restaurant is hidden among a row of misfits along bukit timah road. (its next to a B-class gym, which is next to child care centre, which is next to a pub, which is next to a petrol kiosk. See the connection?)

my mister and I went there once, swearing never to return. But we always do. Outside this jap eatery, are A4 laminated paper menus. All in English (sushi: fat roll. What the hell is a fat roll?), with no pictures.

Ok lah, we decided. One last chance. Big mistake.

Oh yes. I was hungry that night. Really hungry.

Ambience
Pretty nice. Big canvas paintings of koi, soft red lighting, Japanese pop music.
There was a lot A LOT of people in there- families, office people, aunties with their uncle-husbands, more office people.

Hint: Rank your Jap food by the customers.
1. A lot of Japanese + cheap = good jap food
2. a lot of Japanese + expensive= good food, only meant for business and entertainment
3. no Japanese+ cheap= come on, make a guess

in this case, it was
4. no Japanese, all locals + expensive food= crappy jap food which stupid ppl like us will pay so much to eat such food.


Food
This restaurant is popular for its ala carte buffet, which has a hefty range of sashimi, sushi, vege, noodles yakyakyak. The stuff which us crummy locals in our limited exposure will recognize as jap food.

oh there was this attempt to impress by serving a "complimentary dish" of either teppan prawns or some cheem sounding beef roll with gnnochi. so i asked, is it one dish per person? cos in that case we'll take one each. and the manager replied its only complimentary with two adults. *woOOw* so exclusive. ok. we'll go with the beef.

*drum roll* wrong. so wrong. it was served in this sauce dish with two weak stalks of gnocchi wrapped in weak-dried-and-over-marinated beef bits. shudder.

We had that steam egg thing. Chawanmushi. This was possibly the best dish we had for the evening.
Followed that we had the sashimi platter (sashimi platter-Sound so cool hor.) passable. Palatable.
We ordered round two of the sashimi. Gah. It was horrendous. It seemed like they recorded the number of times you ordered. *ding!* round 1- fresh fish. *ding!*round 2- get it from the freezer. *ding!* round3- get it from the trashcan. For the record, we stopped at round 2- where the hamachi got mushy and the toro got fishy.

Btw the wasabe sucks. Its bland. And monotone. I think it comes in a bucket. Sorry ah. Being a bit critical here.

We had the soft-shell crab sushi thing. Which was ok. Quite good. Mister had the soft shell crab hand roll. Which I dint try and he claimed was urgh-not so fantastic.

We also had the pregnant buttered fish. Which tasted like frozen fish- Those that you eat with your porridge, where its wrapped in a box, wrapped in plastic, left to defrost for 2 hours before microwaving it.

As the night wore on, people continued to stream in...nonstop. I just don’t get it.
I digress.

We ordered the cold soba thing. What I cant stand the MOST about soba is when they cook it 3 hours in advance, pack it all into a bowl and leave it in the fridge to coagulate into this giant soba cake and when you order it they take it out rinse it apart and throw a handful into the plate. Not cool I tell you, not cool.
And that was EXACTLY how we had it. With no wasabe summore.

The mister decided to order a bowl of ramen. When it came he took a mouthful, and there was this glimmer in his eyes and a twisted smile. “Let me try! Let me try!” I took a mouthful. “MMMMM! This taste SOO GOOD! There is SO MUCH FLAVOR! And the noodles are SOO NOT LIKE MAGGI MEE! Here!” I pushed it back to him. “You can have the rest.” “no, you have the rest”, “no! YOU have the rest” mister said that it tasted a lot of like the crummy chicken noodle soup desperate Asians buy in new york .


Service
Service sucks. The place is understaffed. It takes 15-20 minutes before each order is served, even if its raw vegetables. Or raw sashimi. Or tea to be poured.

the mister said that the waitresses are like army boys. Nod. Agree. But never ever execute the duty.

They’re quite cute. Like Japanese.
“excuse me, can I have more tea please?”
smile. Open mouth. kawaii kawaii Blinkblink. Walk away.
WAHLAO. Damn infuriating.

We left before all the orders could arrive cos it was just getting damn tiring.

Price
30 bucks +++ per person. *faint* its not the price I tell you. It’s the value for money. (it will be value for money if it was about 15 bucks.)

Overall
To each his own. I have friends who swear by the place. “oh the fish is so fresh! The fish is so succulent! The range is sooo wide”

Blink.

if you must go, make a reservation. Cos apparently, its full house, even on a Wednesday night.

Blink.

The night came to an end, and I was more than ready to give the mister a good night kiss as my lips were all puckered up by the over dosage of salt and msg.

(Oh yar. I do remember one Japanese place worse than this. Its called the Gapz, which serves Chaipanese (Read: Japanese and Chinese) food. I swear, it’s the crappiest shittiest thing ever. Located at pacific plaza. Oh wait, it closed down.)

excuse me while I go get some water.

Ah ma. What is this all about?
Food lah. Ah boy. Food.

good food, bad food. Anything edible, or almost inedible.

I'll be covering food, ambience, service and price.
Of course, it depends on the mood. It always depends on the mood.

If you feel hungry, the food will taste better, the service will be lousier.
If you're full, the food will look less attractive
If you’re having you’re period, nothing will attract you. (Except chocolates maybe)

What's good food? Trust me when i say it is. and trust me more when i say it isn't. Hsu eats anything. Anything. and when she doesn’t. hoho. Watch it honey.

Ambience is not really important. Beware of those clean lined minimalistic interior. Like um let me see. Ah. noooch. And those cute kawaii restaurants at Far East PlazaB1. gah *faint* don’t ever get cheated by that. DON'T.

Service. hmm. yes. If there’s a 15% surcharge, you’d better get good service

And price. It always boil down to price. Hsu always rates the price according to the value of the food. If there’s quality then definitely it will cost more. But if its expensive and crappy. Then the restaurant, or hell hole, whatever, may go and die.

I’ll give it to you. The full low down.

*disclaimer: to each his own. my meat is your poison. your poison is my meat.

Ok. Tuck in.