Annalakshmi

So we were wanting to do delivery for lunch cos we got bored of the food in our area. And then there's the vegetarian Indian food we attempted to go for once but failed because it moved away from Chinatown Point. Then I found out that they had relocated to Clark Quay area, and that their delivery service was still available. At $6 per pack, it sounded like a good deal. Minimum 5 packs to deliver, so we took orders around the lab. Their menu changes daily, with North and South Indian options each day. The website wasn't updated, so we didn't get what we were expecting. But since then, they have started sending me the weekly menu so now I'm always kept in the loop.

Heads up, the portions are HUGE. And it didn't help that I ended up with rice, and a potato side dish, and a rice yoghurt. That's on top of other side dishes and an Indian sweet. Too much carbos in a meal. I couldn't finish them. But it was a delicious meal, I really liked the spiced potatoes. There's also option for less rice and two chapatis, which some of us got. They even printed the best consumed by time. Which was unfortunately a little on the weird side for us. Because we are so near them, we were the first delivery location. I received my lunch at 10.30am. We ate at 12 noon. The consumed by time was 1.30pm or thereabouts.

Delivery - South Indian

Delivery - North Indian, with 2 Chapatis and less rice option

Then we had a farewell for an Indian exchange student who's vegan (for lack of a simpler definition. She's actually a Jain.) So we thought we could go to Annalakshmi itself for lunch. Their system is very unique. It's a non-profit organisation totally run by volunteers, and proceeds, if I'm not wrong, goes into the maintenance of the school of Indian arts known as the Temple of Fine Arts next door. So you pay however much you want, for a vegetarian buffet lunch! The art pieces on walls, we were told by an Indian colleague, were also all available for sale, and the proceeds goes to the same cause. Good food (for us) for a good cause (for them), isn't that a fantastic combination?

Because there's so many of us, we needed a reservation. With a big group, they requested a minimum payment of $12 each. That's still a very good deal for a buffet! The principle behind Annalakshmi is food cooked and served with love. The volunteers prep the food the way they would at home for their loved ones, no short cut. And because the volunteers rotate, that's the reason why their menu changes. The food on the buffet menu is pretty much the same as the delivery menu. Both the North and South Indian options are there for the taking. On top of that, we are entitled to drinks and chapattis and puri. Oh my, those piping hot and crispy puri are to die for. Deep fried doughs of happiness. I only allowed myself half... As much as I wanted more, I really needed to watch my fat intake. The lassi were great too. I had a mango lassi which I thoroughly enjoyed. The was also vadai at the buffet, which were puffy little fried doughs. With the variety of dips and curries available, you will find no lack of accompaniment for them. And I happily found the same spiced potato that I had (potato masala) previously during the delivery. Yes it's a lot of carbo, but I was going back so many rounds of this.

Lassi, vadai, rice, veggies and curries

Overall I loved the spirit behind this place, and the food too. True, the word 'vegetarian' turns a lot of the carnivorous colleagues off. One of them even claimed that too much veggies gave him indigestion for that day, not bothering to note the fact that probably his 3 puri and mountain of vadai was more likely the cause of the said indigestion -_-|||. Some of us thought we will return, but somehow never got around to it. Maybe we should really go back one of these days. 

Annalakshmi

#01-04, Central Square
20, Havelock Road
Singapore 059765
Nearest MRT station: Clarke Quay (Exit B) or Chinatown (Exit E)
Tel : 6339 9993

For delivery: 8181 3407

For catering: 97813593

Casa Latina

J had tried this joint several times before and she really liked it. But it's pricing is on the steep end, so she never brought us there - until a deal for this restaurant popped up at one of those deals websites, and she grabbed the chance. Coincidentally, V asked us out for dinner, so we decided to head to Casa Latina for our little gathering.

We took a long time to decide on what to eat, partly because there's such a huge variety, partly because we barely understood the menu, and partly because we were a little excitedly catching up with one another and neglected the menu for a bit.

The reason I said we barely understood the menu? It's at no fault to them. We're really just very unfamiliar with Mexican food. Honestly I personally only knew what guacomole, nachos and fajitas are. =D But we got through with some recommendations from J who remembered a few things she liked, as well as some recommendations from the waiter, and finally some random choices based on the descriptions on the menu.

After our orders were placed, we were served corn chips and dips to start off the meal. Crunchy corn chips were a fabulous way to wait for our food to arrive. Then our appetizer of nacho chips and tamales arrived. The nachos were served with the usual beans, jalepeno peppers, melted cheese, tomatoes and a small dish of guacomole. Their guacomole was so good. Even after the nachos were gone, we ordered an additional dish of guacomole and requested additional chips to polish it off.

Corn chips with dips

Nachos

The Tamales were something that J wanted, because she really enjoyed them from her previous visit. They are essentially corn based dough steamed in banana leaves. The four tamales served had different fillings, and I've really forgotten which is what. Take home message - it was a nice, hot, aromatic and savoury start to the meal.

Tamales

Tamales opened up

Next up was Pozole Rojo, which is a pork stew. Although fragrant and rich, it was incredible salty. So while I managed the meat and veggies, I was unable to touch much of the stock, despite my usual tendency to lick up every single drop of delicious broth given to me.

Pozole Rojo (Hearty Mexican Stew)

The Camarones Caribeños was a prawn dish cooked with lettuce, potatoes, mangoes and oranges. It was served alongside some Mexican rice and a bit of salsa. The prawns were sweet, and very well complemented by the fruits and veggies. The rice was aromatic, and we totally loved this dish.

Camarones Caribeños

Las Carnitas was basically pork confit served with warm corn tortillas. The pork was very nicely flavored, and was juicy despite looking dry. And what's Mexican without tortillas right? The flatbread made for a great vehicle to deliver those tasty morsels of pork into my mouth.

Las Carnitas (Little Meats)

For our Fajitas, we opted for grilled strips of skirt steak since we already have prawns, chicken and pork. It was cooked with onions, tomatoes and bell peppers, and more guacomole and tortillas. So between the two tortilla dishes, we had enough tortillas to go round the table of 5. The beef was juicy, and again, made for a very delicious bundle with the tortillas.

Beef Fajitas

Our final dish had a hilarious name. Divorced chicken. Chicken thigh cooked in leaves and served with two types of mole, rice, beans and corn tortillas. The tortillas here were different from the other two dishes, if I didn't remember wrongly. This dish slips my memory, so I guess it was an average dish.

Pollo Divorciado (Divorced Chicken)

We were all quite full by the end of these, and decided to just share one dessert. A chocolate Tamal. The same corn-based dough steamed in banana leaf, but made sweet instead of savoury. Chocolate flavoured Tamal topped with vanilla ice cream. It wasn't overly rich, and was a nice way of ending the meal.

Casa Latina Chocolate Tamal (House Special) 

The prices was indeed steep. Not something I'll be keen to try without another voucher. It was nice, but just not impressive enough for me to want to spend that kind of money on the food. Maybe the problem lies with me. I just have a greater preference for other kinds of cuisines. The service staff were friendly and helpful, something which I really appreciate. Maybe one day if I get a Mexican food request (I occasionally gets requests for 'exotic food' from a certain friend of mine's birthday celebrations), I may just bring whoever it is back here.


Casa Latina
01-09 Village Hotel Albert Court,180 Albert Street
Singapore 189971
Email: info@casalatina.com.sg
Tel: 6884 6929
Fax: 6884 6930

Tamoya (Chinatown Point)

It was one of those nights I had no dinner plans. So I asked XP if he's having dinner before going home. He said yes, and we're both done with our work, so we packed our bags and decided to go elsewhere for dinner. We are really bored of food near our workplace. Then I suggested Tamoya, because I've seen their posters a few times in Chinatown Point. I love udon but Lynn dislikes it - she's more of a soba girl, so she doesn't want to entertain me. So XP agreed to go with me.

Tamoya turns out to be an Ikea-type udon restaurant. In the sense that you place your order for udon, pick up a selection of sides if you wish, collect your food, make payment for your food and help yourself to the condiments and plain water. All self-serviced. The condiments available were the standard wakame, grated radish, green onions, fried garlic, tempura crumbs etc. All very Japanese. Then, in the midst of all these Japanese condiments, you see sliced chilli padi. I was super cracked up. Kept laughing. That's SO Singaporean and NOT Japanese at all!

We discovered the noodle portion for 'small' is really quite small, so for average to big eaters, you may consider the 'large' portion. I enjoyed my beef udon - tender beef, chewy udon in the flavorful broth. The broth is refillable if you find your noodles soaking up the liquid too fast.

Beef Udon

I found the tempura a little on the the greasy side, but still ok. Again the dipping sauce is refillable, but not like I'm going to drink dipping sauces so that wasn't an important point.

Mixed vegetable tempura (foreground), grilled asparagus (background)

I forgot to take photo of XP's curry udon until he had already mixed it, so pardon me for the messy photo. He liked it as well, but it look a tad dry to me.

Curry Udon

After eating, you then help clear the tables and put the trays at the tray return point. All very self-serviced. I actually quite liked it, only found the portion too small. Next time I may order the large noodle and pick a few more sides.

Tamoya

133 New bridge road
Chinatown point SC

B1#48-49

Cafe 2000 Seafood and Barbecue Buffet

I love barbecues. Like really really love barbecues. As a teen I was always trying to connive my friends to go chalets because I want to eat barbecues. Or drag them to the now-defunk Marina Bay steamboat barbecues for my birthday dinners. Now, I resort to Korean and Japanese table barbecue restaurants. So when I walked pass this place and smelled the grilling meats, I was besotted. I had to go there. What's nicer than barbecuing your own food? Having others grill it for you and delivered to your table! In unlimited quantities!

So Lynn, her mom and I went for our little tai tai dinner one Friday night. The BBQ buffet is only available on Friday and Saturdays. I made reservation and hung up, didn't even remember to ask about the pricing. Thank goodness it wasn't too unaffordable. The spread was decent. Not a huge variety, but decent. We didn't like the server though. A very snobby guy, who gave us instructions in a very talk-down manner, as if we are stupid. All because Lynn innocently asked if the food outside is the same. We really thought that the BBQ happens outside the restaurant.

So let me try to go through in a more course-sequence correct manner (we took our food in a haphazard sequence actually). Cold dishes first. The cold food section was fresh, served on beds of ice. Prawns, mussels, oysters, Hokkaido crab claws, scallops and crab halves. The prawns were fresh and sweet. I usually dislike oysters that are too fishy, but theirs was fine. The Hokkaido crab claws were sweet, but too troublesome so we didn't go for seconds.

Cold food section

Now the BBQ section. Their system is pretty cute. We were given clips with our table number. So we basically go to the raw food section, take whatever we want, clip the number to the plate, and pass it to the grill staff. They will grill our food, and deliver it to our table. The BBQ food variety was pretty good. Crayfish, prawn, salmon, otah, squid, lamb, beef, chicken, pork etc. It was only during our second round that I notice that what we initially took to be 'decorations' on the ice around the bowls of raw food, were actually real corn and gong gong. So I started picking the 'decorations' to be grilled. And true enough, they were cooked and delivered to us. Gong gong are not often seen, so I was going crazy with picking the decorations. Haaaa. Sorry they aren't very apparent in the photos. I took this photos after a few rounds of picking. =D

Raw seafood to be grilled

Squid and otah (spot the gong gong)

Poultry (spot the gong gong)

The clips with our table number

And tadaa.... our cooked food. I stole the sticks from the chocolate fountain to use to dig my gong gong flesh out. Haaa

Grilled lamb, gong gong and scallops

Now the cooked food. They have a decent spread, and seems to be having some crayfish special. There's crayfish in the cold food, in the BBQ, in the cooked food, and in the yong tau foo section. We found the roast section one of our favorite. We spammed the sausages quite a few times, as well as the ribeye. The guy at the roast section isn't very generous, and only gave us one sausage at the time. So we had to go back a few times.

The other cooked food was quite passable. Lynn's mom love crayfish, so we hung around the crayfish tray until the salted egg crayfish appeared.

Ribeye

Ribs and sausages

Fried fish in sweet and spicy sauce

Pizza and satays

Cereal prawn and roast pork

Salted egg cray fish and crackers

Their noodle section is seafood yong tau foo. You choose your own ingredients, and the type of noodles, and the type of soup. The chef then prepares it your way. I opted for Laksa gravy. Skipped the crayfish though, because I think I had a crayfish overdose.

Seafood yong tau foo

Laksa yong tau foo

Their array of desserts was pretty impressive. But I was too full to explore too much of it. Lynn's mom loved the durian mousse. We tried some of the chocolate fountain. It's... chocolate fountain lor.

Durian mousse

Overall it was a very good meal. We ate til we were stuffed. Lynn feels that she would never be back. It didn't impress her so much that she would want to return. I felt it was ok, and may consider bringing my family back just to try. And for the gong gong. Lol...

Cafe 2000
81 Anson RoadSingapore, 079908+65 6500 6112

Antoinette (Palais Renaissance)

It was CA's birthday. She wanted an all-day breakfast high-tea on a Sunday. After calling around several places, I finally found one that entertained reservations on a Sunday afternoon. So Antoinette it was, the Palais Renaissance branch. Even then, latest reservation was 1.30pm, then it was for dinner. So early high-tea or late lunch? Whatever you want to call it.

I arrived first with a homemade cake. When I request that they keep our cake for us, I was informed that because they are a patisserie, we are only allowed to blow candles at the restaurant, but not allowed to cut and eat the cake. I understand to a certain degree, but might as well not allow us to blow candle at all, since it was a little silly to blow and keep and then hunt for another place to eat the cake. But ah well, that's what we ended up doing but that's beside the point. It was a homemade cake. I content myself to that maybe I did such a good job that it looked store bought and they didn't want it served there. Haha!

A few of us earlier ones were famished. So we ordered teas and a mushroom soup to share before the rest arrive. Their tea sets are elegant, but very unfortunately, to no fault of theirs, the hot tea pot tends to melt the table's lacquer and my tea pot is stuck quite firmly to the table. So each time I want to pour myself more tea, I have to wrestle the tea pot off the table, pour my tea and set it back down. The cycle repeats. It was tiring for me, and the poor table have many many O-shaped scars of lacquers melted off by previous tea pots. On a repeat visit, they learnt to place a coaster under the tea pot. Save me a whole lot of arm wrestling energy, for sure.

Petit rose tea

So she wanted all-day breakfast, and all-day breakfast it was. We ordered a dish each, and a Salad Lyonnaise and a Gnocchi carbonara to share. Because we didn't like gnocchi, we swapped it for spaghetti. Note: Antoinette's servings are pretty huge. A dish each plus two to share was beyond what we can comfortably finish. Their poached eggs were beautifully done. Gorgeous soft egg whites that cut open to reveal the perfectly runny egg yolks. I never liked poached eggs before because those I ever tried were dry and tissue paper-like (really. I actually mistook one for tissue paper and nearly cleaned my finger on it). Antoinette managed to make me fall in love with poached eggs, and I've been loving poached eggs ever since this visit.

Scrambled eggs with Scottish smoked salmon

Poached eggs with Scottish smoked salmon

They also serve up a variety of savoury pancakes. My order was the Crepe Brittany. Oh my gosh. That so-called 'scallops, prawns, squids and mussels sauteed with white wine and cream' was more like a creamy seafood soup. I had imagined it to be a somewhat dry sauté. It turned out to be a rich, creamy, soupy stew, sweet from the seafood, aromatic from the spices. My crepe was the perfect vehicle to soak up all that creamy goodness. Ok, I admit, I was drinking the soup plain too. The Crepe Florentine was almost pizza-like, but softer.

Savoury Blinis with creamy mushroom, grill bacon, grilled tomato and salad

Crepe Brittany

Crepe Florentine

The carbonara wasn't overly cloying, and the sauce was perfect with thick ribbons of parmesan in it. And of course, served with their signature poached egg - which I stole, because my crepe didn't come with an egg, unlike the breakfast dishes the others had. The salad Lyonnaise was a mistake, since we didn't know every dish actually pretty much came with a side salad. So we had a bit of a greens overdose. Or rather, I did, because I can't stand food being wasted and finished almost the whole plate.

Carbonara gnocchi swapped for spaghetti

Salad Lyonnaise

Other than the weird no cake eating rule, we generally did enjoy ourselves. CA ordered a dessert in the end too, from their patisserie, but I forgot to get a picture of it. This branch isn't too crowded, something we like. However, it seems they only had two staff going around, and because of the circular layout of the restaurants, it's sometimes hard to get their attention. Other than that, this is definitely a nice place to chill out and eat and chat.

Antionette
390 Orchard Road, Palais Renaissance
B1-08/09/10C,
Singapore 238871
(65) 67356392

Belated entry: Saucy birthday celebration at Skirt

It was Lynn's birthday. So I'm ditching my stickler to chronological order trait and blogging this first, although it's still a good 4 months late. =P After tossing around a few places on our 'To-Eat' list (yes, we actually share a list of places we want to visit), we picked Skirt at W Hotel in Sentosa. Thankfully I drive now, so it was a breeze to get to the hotel. 

The restaurant wasn't overly crowded, which we like. It wasn't overly dim either. And the server was friendly and enthusiastic as she make recommendations for the food. She also very nicely gave us the option of chilled or room temperature bottled water (they don't serve regular water here) due to the rainy water. 

As with most restaurants, we start of the meal with fluffy warm bread. Theirs was served with a hummus and a vinegar mixture of some sort. We enjoyed the hummus, but the vinegar didn't sit too well with us so we largely ignored it. Appetizers we chose were chicken liver pate and some sort of a deconstructed crab cake. The liver pate was very good. Smooth and buttery, and went well with the crackers. But we never understood why liver pate was always served with inadequate number of crackers. Like how am I supposed to eat the entire lump of pate there with only 5 crackers? We ended up asking for a second serving of fluffy warm bread to finish up the pate. The pate also had some pork fat coated popcorn on the side. Lynn didn't like the porkiness so I finished them. The crab cake I call it deconstructed becos it was actually more of a crab salad than a cake. The crab meat were sweet, and the 'spiced foam' was a lobster-bisque like sauce on the side. We couldn't help comparing it to Wooloomooloo's crab lumps, and agreed we like the crab lumps better.

Fluffy warm bread with hummus and vinegar

Crab cakes, cucumber and spiced foam

Blackmore Rillette, Pate, Pastrami, Bersaola (I THINK. Can't find an item on the online menu closer to this one)

We then moved on to the main course. They cleared our table (somewhat, because we still wanted the bread and remaining pate) and placed the setting for steaks. Their steak cutlery are so unique! Forest on my table. Haha! Before our meats were served, they gave us two little bottles each. One was a homemade BBQ sauce for the meats. One was a sweet, mild alcoholic drink for us to clear our palette from our starters before we start on the mains. Which we thought was funny, because our liver pate was still sitting on the table in front of us. So much for clearing the palette.

We had also ordered a few other condiments for our steak, not expecting the BBQ sauce. We took the Four peppercorn sauce, Red Wine and Marrow sauce and Three Mustards. To our surprise, the meats were also served with a three salts array - roasted sea salt, rosemary salt and... pepper salt? I forgot the last one. My apologies. . That makes it a total of 6 sauces and 3 salts. It was a really saucy meal.

Three salts for the meats

We opted for the full blood wagyu Skirt steak, their signature. As well as an Iberico Pork Tenderloin. The beef was flavorful and tender, and was nicely complemented by the salts and the mustard. We largely neglected the two sauces, not because they weren't nice. We were just too overwhelmed by the number of condiments. And really, nothing beats good old salt and mustard on beef. The pork tenderloin was tender, juicy and went well with the BBQ sauce. That piece of crackling you see in the picture? It was crunchy, fatty and satisfying. Totally worth the calories I'm telling you.

Iberico Pork Tenderloin

Full Blood Wagyu Skirt Steak - 200g, with the Three Mustards in the background

On the side we ordered hand cut garlic fries with mayonaise (another sauce!), and sauteed Portobello mushrooms. The fries were thick-cut, the way I like them, with bits of crunchy, fragrant garlic slices thrown in. We thoroughly enjoyed the fries. Crunchy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, with the aroma of fried garlic. The mushrooms were juicy and meaty as Portobellos are. We were very happy with our choices of sides.

Hand cut Garlic fries with mayonaise

Because it was a birthday celebration, Skirt gave us a complimentary birthday cake. The cake was very normal. Plain, somewhat dry sponge cake sandwiching some pastry cream. It was forgettable but we were too full to want dessert anyway so we didn't mind it too much. Their dessert fork had floral engravings on it. How pretty! Skirt does have the prettiest cutlery I've seen around.

Floral engraving on their dessert fork

Overall we were very happy with dinner. It was really our sauciest meal ever, but that aside, the meat quality was top-notch. The other food did not disappoint and the service crew was highly attentive. And we had a nice walk around the area after dinner too. Skirt is really a good restaurant to visit for that special occasion. We highly recommend it.

Skirt - The Boldest Grill
21 Ocean Way
Singapore, 098374 Singapore
+65 6808 7278

skirt.singapore@whotels.com