Club Chinos @ Orchard Parade Hotel

Club Chinos has been in Orchard Parade Hotel for many years. And its Sunday Brunch is pretty popular.

Serving more than 100 dishes, from Dim Sum to Cantonese delicacies, there must be something to satisfy everyone from the family.



The decor in the restaurant is classy, but really noisy and crowded on a Sunday afternoon.




Honey glazed BBQ pork. Char siew is a bit tough.




Wok-baked prawns with spicy sauce enhanced with Chinese wine - I love prawns. Fresh and crunchy. No complaints. Sauce is tangy and a bit spicy.




Sharks fins soup - The poor shark sacrificed for this average tasting soup.




Assortment dim sum - Fresh prawns dumplings, Siew Mai and egg custard buns.

I need to put this on record - The siew mai is THE WORST I have ever tried. It is made of like 20% pork and 80% flour mixture. Terrible. Worst than those coffeeshop Siew Mai. Avoid at all cost.




Can't remember this soup, but it was served in a coconut with crabmeat.




Chee Cheong Fun with prawns - prawns are crunchy and tasty.




Braised Chef beancurd, Sauteed vegetables, with Nameko mushrooms and crispy dried scallops.




Crisp fried prawns with Sun dried tomato sauce - Again, I love prawns. No complaints. Sauce is quite tangy. Goes well with the crispy prawns.




Braised Mee Sua with Golden Mushrooms and Noble Tanfu Sauce - I have no idea wat this Tanfu sauce is, but it's a bit sweet and salty. Dish was quite good, but unfortunately stomach is bursting.




Pan seared Lamb fillet with Fennel seeds. Not sure if I got the sauce correct. Lot's of sun dried tomatoes. Meat is tender.




Chilled herbal jelly, Chinese pastry topped with sesame seeds, Double boiled snow fungus red dates and almond seeds and Chilled Aloe Vera Jelly with Lime Syrup flavoured witg Lemongrass.




Cream of Almond with dumpling.

This is my 1st time eating at Club Chinos. I am not sure if they have better dishes, but the thought of the Siew Mai is stopping me to visit this restaurant again.


Club Chinos
1 Tanglin Road
#02-18
Orchard Parade Hotel

Aston Prime @ Joo Chiat Road

When people mention Aston, the words value-for-money and quality-steaks come to mind.

Aston now has this Aston Prime outlet, where they serve even better cuts of beef, at a slightly high price.



Bread - slightly toasted. Great with creamy butter.




Crunchy salad




I forgot wat soup this is, but it is rich and creamy. The garlic goes well with the hearty soup.




Crunchy roast pork belly. The pork is grilled till crispy, not unlike the Sio Bah from the Cantonese.




The skin of the roast pork is grilled till so crispy. But diners on diet may want to give this a miss, because there is a layer of fats under the skin.




Super thick premium steak. Look at how big and thick the steak is! The meat is actually pretty tender. But not overly tender.




The beef had a comfortable amount of fats, and the meat is slowly roasted. Yet the steak still retains its natural meat juice.



Aston Prime
467 Joo Chiat Road
TEL: 63442447

Tai Seng Noodles @ Amoy Street Hawker Centre

For a S$3 Wanton Mee at a food centre, how many wantons do you expect?

4? 5? 6?

Well, at Amoy Street Food Centre 2nd floor, Tai Seng Noodles is selling their S$3 version with no less than 20 wantons!

Just take a look:



I have drained all the wantons from the bowl of soup onto the plate of noodle. The aunty gave me even more wantons as she ran out of Char Siew slices.

The soup was quite nice to drink, but the thing which attracted me to her noodles, was the special sauce base. It's quite addictive.

Be prepared to wait during lunch time as she is running a self-service 1 woman show. No assistants, no helpers. She cooks and give change to you.


Tai Seng Noodles House
#02-123 Amoy Street Hawker Centre
Mon - Sat, 11am - 2pm

Shin Yeh @ Liang Court

Shin Yeh has a 32 years history in Taiwan serving porridge and simple dishes.

Late last year, the Tung Lok group of restaurants obtained the rights to Shin Yeh in Singapore, and opened its first Singapore outlet at Liang Court.

Since then, it has been receiving high turnover of customers due to its simple and tasty dishes which suits the palate of Singaporeans.



This is their speciaty - pan fried caramalized Pig liver. I need to confess that before this, I have hated pig liver as the taste is a bit overwhelming for me.

However, one bite of the special pork liver, and I am sold! Each piece is pan fried and caramalized in its oil and syrup, and it almost resemble that of Foie Gras. Well, almost.

Highly recommended to accompany with the sweet potato porridge.




Double boiled soup. Pretty simple, I would say.



"Drunken" Chicken - No, the chicken was not drunk before it was cooked. Rather, the chicken had been cooked and marinated with Chinese cooking wine. It is then chilled. Tender, juicy but a bit bitter. Great for a warm afternoon.




Chai Por omelette. What is different with this version is that the outer layer is fried till crispy, while the inner omelette is still moist. The Chai Por used is also not too salty. Another great dish to go with the porridge.




Yellow wine chicken. A note of warning that this dish is huge. Enough for at least 4 to 5 people. The yellow wine is fragrant, but has a hint of bitterness. Quite potent for those who does not like the taste and smell of Yellow wine.




Complimentary Taiwan Muah Chee - Frankly speaking, I prefer our own local version as the peanut here is grind till too fine. I prefer to have my peanuts coarse.




Their house specialty - Hand beaten tofu jelly. Indeed, the tofu is very "QQ". Unlike the silky soft tofu we have here, this tofu dessert dish is a bit chewy. Refreshing.


Shin Yeh
177 River Valley Road
Liang Court Shopping Center, #02-19
Singapore 179030
Tel: 6338 7337
http://www.shinyeh.com.sg

Lei Gardens @ Chijmes

(Apologies for the unclear photographs)

Lei Gardens has been around in Hong Kong for many years, and have branched out years ago in Singapore, opening 2 branches at Orchard and Chijmes.

It is famous for its cantonese dishes, such as the Peking Duck and other seafood dishes.



When dining in the main hall, one can marvel at the seafood display tanks. Quite an attractive piece of decoration for any restaurant.




Sharks Fins Soup. The fins taste crunchy and the soup had the double boiled goodness to it.




Half a Peking duck which was skillfully deskined and wrapped in the tasty crepe rolls. Crispy, tasty and just as how a good Peking Duck ought to be.




Cantonese claypot goodness filled with Tau Kee (Beancurd Skin), Fatty pork skin, 3 layered pork and vegetables. The pipping hot gravy goes very well with white rice.




The Claypot was served in an elaborate burner, thus keeping the food warm.



Juicy and fragrant duck meat from our Peking Duck. It was roasted just nice, and not too salty. We opted to enjoy the meat on its own rather than pan frying it with noodles.




Claypot Rice, which was already scooped into small bowls. A variety of Lup Cheongs were added into the claypot, such as normal pork Lup Cheong, pork liver Lup Cheong and dried 3 layered pork slices.

The oil from these preserved meats had already coated every morsel of the white rice.




Dessert was Lava Chocolate and a scoop of ice-cream with biscuit. A pretty western way to end a traditional Cantonese feast.


Lei Garden
30 Victoria Street
Chijmes #01-24
Singapore 187996
Tel : 6339 3822

Bunalun @ Chip Bee Gardens

Hidden at a corner of sleepy Chip Bee Gardens is Bunalun.

It's a premium gourmet store cafe selling home made organic dishes and groceries.

Basically it's a 2-in-1 store.



The store is brightly lid and decorated with their organic produce and fresh fruits. You already feel healthy just looking at their items on sale!




Customers are seated around this bar top table, and you get to see the friendly lady boss making your cuppa while having a chat with you.




This is quite tasty. It's a pancake like thingy with fried fish slices, organic salad leaves and mango chutney. Drizzled with balsamic vinegar.




Organic panckaes with organic berries preserved and maple syrup.




Organic beef pie with salad. The pie is freshly baked, so do expect to wait for a while for the pie.




Chokeful of beef, carrots, potatoes and mushrooms.


Bunalun
43 Jalan Merah Saga, 01-70
Store open: 9am to 9pm daily
Cafe open: 9am to 4.30pm daily
http://www.bunalun.com.sg/pureinflavour/index.php

Beng Thin Hoon Kee Restaurant 茗珍奋记菜馆 @ OCBC Centre

When people think of Hokkien food, they would think of the black sauce Hokkien noodles (also known as KL Noodles), Hokkien fried prawn mee and Fried prawns rolls. But Hokkien food is more than that.

Beng Thin Hoon Kee is a very old Hokkien restaurant in Singapore. It opened in 1949 in Hokkien Street (where else? haha), and moved to its current location at the 5th floor of OCBC Centre multi-storey carpark in 1979.

Upon seeing the restaurant, you are greeted by a "temple" like entrance within the carpark. Decor inside is the ordinary Chinese restaurant deco. It's a family restaurant where the food is suitable for ages 9 to 90.



Fish maw soup - Soup is sweet and full of goodies like oysters and fish maw.



Oyster Omelette - Unlike her hawker centre cousin where the oysters are mixed with eggs and flour to create a pancake like dish, the egg and flour is fried till very very crispy. After which, the oysters are pan fried with their unique special chilli sauce and then fried together with the eggs and flour. It's absolutely delicious.

But, be warned that this dish is super oily and fattening. Those who are on diet should AVOID this. And please share this dish because you will get a bit tired of it after 4 to 5 spoonfuls of this dish due to the oiliness.



Fried mee sua - This is excellent. The mee sua has absorbed the special gravy and every mouthful is bursting with flavour. Again, lot's of ingredients such as seafood and vegetables. I recommend this over Hokkien Mee (though I have yet to eat their Hokkien Mee before).



Hae Cho (Prawns Rolls) - Another very popular dish. Their Hae Cho is very juicy and flavourful in the inside, and crispy on the outside. The pork and prawns and water chestnut really blends in very well. Great with the Mee Sua.

Good service and great food warrants another visit from me!


Beng Thin Hoon Kee Restaurant 茗珍奋记菜馆
65 Chulia Street
#05-02
OCBC Centre
Tel: 65337708

Special Dish From Tung Lok Signatures

Just want to show this special dish from Tung Lok Signatures.

Guess what is this?



This is actually Crocodile Claws cooked in gravy. This is my 1st time having crocodile meat. The skin is quite chewy, reminds me of beef tendons.

The meat taste like chicken meat. I guess the gravy adds flavour to the otherwise bland meat.

Le Bon Marche @ Tiong Bahru

Those who love to read Urban every Friday on Straits Times would remember that sometime last year, Posh Nosh would always recommend French food stuffs from this small shop in sleepy Tiong Bahru.

Well, I finally located this Le Bon Marche, which is situated at the end of the Tiong Bahru estate. It is situated next to a French Macaron shop and a Chinese grocery shop.



Upon entering the shop, you will be amazed by all the never-before-seen food items which are lined up around the shop. It is more "European" than Carrefour.




Initially, Le Bon Marche is simply a shop selling French food items to customer. After a while, the owner decided to set aside half of the shop as a small cafe to serve cafe food using ingredients from the shop.




The shelves are lined with lot's of imported food stuffs from France. I am particularly attracted to the varieties of truffle oil sold here.



Mushroom soup - Find the mushroom soup too overwhelmingly thick. But I think fans of mushrooms would love it.




Parma Ham salad. Lot's of healthy greens.




Hot Chocolate with Almond cookies. The Hot Chocolate is so thick and chocolatey, and is great during a cold rainy day.




Foie Gras sandwich with more salad and beetroot.




I cannot remember the name of the dessert, but it is full of chocolates and fudge. So fans of chocolate would want to order this dessert.

BTW, service is warm and friendly. Think we were served by the lady boss.


Le Bon Marche
01-4178 Guan Chuan Street
Tel: 62263269
Opening hours: 11am to 9.30pm (Mondays to Saturdays, closed on Sundays)