Classic Lao Di Fang

Lynn asked me out for an impromptu dinner one day, and my hubby was supposed to pick me up from work that day. So she suggested that the three of us could go for a vegetarian dinner together at Classic Lao Di Fang at Park Mall. Having hubby there was good, because it meant that we could order more stuff.

The menu was mind-boggling, and it was hard to decide what to eat given the variety. After much discussion, we finalized to the following:

Dou Miao in Pumpkin sauce. Chosen because I wanted some greens. Couldn't really taste the pumpkin despite the brilliant yellow color. It was probably the most passable item we ordered. Hubby's choice - Spicy and Sour soup. It looked deceivingly harmless, but was really quite spicy when we started on it. With all the other spicy stuff we ordered, it got quite difficult to handle towards the end. And the serving was quite big too. We had two small bowls each.

Dou Miao in Pumpkin Sauce

Spicy and Sour soup

Lynn's fave - Crispy Yam Duck. She liked this from her previous visit. It's exactly as the name implies. Crispy layer on top of soft fluffy yam, served with a strawberry sauce on the side. It sounds weird, but it's a good weird. The Szechuan Spicy Chicken was interesting. Cold 'chicken' shreds served on a bed of cold vermicelli. The spicy sauce, and the accompaniment of cucumber strips and enoki mushrooms made this a refreshing dish, in a fiery way.

Crispy Yam Duck

Szechuan Spicy Chicken

Zoom in on the very cute 'drumstick'

All the dishes were eaten together with their fragrant brown rice. I loved it. It was a mixture of white and brown rice, but tasted so fragrant and wholesome.

Brown rice

We actually had another dish, some mango roll, which the camera missed. Hubby had a very fulfilling meal, just as we did. He did find it expensive, but that was comparing to Zi Zai, which is a coffeeshop, not a restaurant. Ignoring his comments about the price, this is actually an interesting place to try out a good variety of Chinese vegetarian food minus the frills.

Skinny Pizza (Plaza Singapura)

I've always liked Skinny Pizza for their super thin pizza crusts, their fragrant truffle fries, and the wild rocket on basically everything on the menu. Previous visits were to the Dempsey branch, called Barracks, and the Great World City branch. When we were at PS hunting for a dinner location at the new wing, we decided Skinny will do because it wasn't too crowded, and some of the group hadn't tried it before. Moreover I had a 10% discount voucher from a previous visit.

I immediately decided I wanted the truffle fries and the Wild Truffle Mushroom pizza. I actually haven't tried the truffle pizza before, but remember smelling next table's when we were dining at Great World City. I remembered it smelling fantastic, so had no qualms about ordering it this time round. On top of that, we ordered a meter long chicken sausage, a Meatball Spaghetti Napolitana, a Squid Ink pizza, and a Smoked Turkey Swiss pizza.

Squid Ink Pizza

Meter Long Chicken Sausage

Truffle fries

I missed the photo opportunity for the other two pizzas. The truffle fries were as good as I remember. The Wild Truffle Mushroom pizza disappointed. It didn't have the aroma I whiffed at Great World. I'm not sure is it a branch to branch variation, or that it really isn't as attractive when it's right in front of you. You know what they say about the grass being greener on the other side. It tasted like regular mushroom pizza with the tiniest hint of truffle. The Squid Ink, however, was really yummy. The ink was actually baked into the crust, so the crust had that additional inkiness. Together with the additional smear of ink sauce, the squid rings and the ubiquitous wild rocket, it was a really good slice of pizza. The Smoked Turkey Swiss pizza was pretty good too. Salty turkey slices that went with so well with everything else on the pizza.

The sausage was quite average. Not the kind that makes your fork keep going back for seconds. And it seemed that I was the only sausage lover in the group. So I dutifully finished up the sausage at the end when no one else wanted it. The pasta was delicious. We all liked the tomato based sauce. It was fragrant, with the right balance of sweet and salty. The meatballs were ok. Hubby joined us subsequently, and I ordered him a Ratatouille Pizza. He didn't complain, so I guess it was good enough for him.

We did have a little trouble getting the waiters' attentions for refill of water, new orders and additional table setting and what not, but overall the service wasn't too bad. The pizza came one at the time, so we had the time to distribute all the slices before the next one arrived, leaving our table less cramped. It was a nice place to just eat and catch up. Maybe, just maybe, I should return to the Great World branch to try their truffle mushroom pizza.


Skinny Pizza Plaza Singapura
68 Orchard Road#03-79/83Plaza SingapuraSingapore 238839
Tel: +65 6884 8381
http://www.skinnypizza.com.sg/

The Steakhouse - Revisit

The constant craving for their warm beef salad finally brought both of us back to "The Steakhouse", only to find out that they have changed their menu. Super sad but our beef craving got us staying to try out their new menu. Couple of hits and misses for their new dishes.

We order Walnut salad and Escargots as appetizers. Walnut salad was enjoyable, sweet cruchy walnuts with  big cubes of blue cheese poached pears. Salad was not overly sweet and has a nice fruitness to it with the vegetables. 

Walnut salad with poached pear and blue cheese

Escargots are served with nicely toasted bread, the garlic butter sauce for the escargot is amazing, and its a good idea providing bread sticks to soak up all the goodness on that plate. However, the escargots' taste are abit lacking and could do with more flavour in it. Bread is nicely toasted, crisp on the outer, warm and fluffy in the inside. Gracie commented that they should provide 6 bread instead of 5 cos there's half a dozen escargots.

We ordered Angus Beef tagliatelle pasta in cream sauce and truffle oil and Australian Wagyu ribeye 200g (Grade 8-9). Pasta's texture is more like handmade pasta compared to those dried one in supermarket, so it soaks up the creamy sauce better than regular pasta. Sauce is wonderful, not overly creamy and we finished up the whole plateful including the sauce! Beef is enjoyable as well, lean but not tough and slightly juicy. 

Beef tagliatelle pasta in cream sauce and truffle oil

We added a piece of foie gras for ~$16 and also mac and cheese as side, mushroom sauce and herb butter as accompanying sauce. Wagyu steak is quite disappointing, its not lousy but its definitely not as blissful as the one we had when we first visited. Steak does not have the distinctive wagyu fragrance, although its nicely done at medium rare and quite juicy. It just din quite make it. Halfway through the steak, we started to feel that its too oily and had some difficulties finishing it. The foie gras saved the day! Pan fried and crispy charred and saltish on the outside, melts and fills your mouth with its fragance... HMMMmmmm... 

Wagyu ribeye with foie gras

Mac and cheese is a total waste of time, calories and money. Strongly urge you not to order it, its nothing like the pasta we had earlier, my mum can make better mac and cheese and my mum can't cook pasta. Herb butter is also different from our previous visit, we almost didn't touch it.

Overall, we had mixed feelings about their new menu, service is also abit slow. There's another tall male server we felt was abit sloppy in his service but thankfully, we had a nice friendly server attending to us. Average spending is about $100/pax, with the more expensive new menu and slightly disappointing beef, there's only a slim slim slim chance that we will be back. 

The Steakhouse

3B River Valley Road

#01-14 The Foundry

Clarke Quay

Tel: 63321010