Mouth Restaurant

It's somewhere near Mother's Day and I brought my mama to Plaza Singapura to try out Bijin nabe and the queue was too long to wait so I had to find another place to feed my hungry mama. Mama then chose this Mouth Restaurant seeing that they offer dim sum buffet for less than $30/pax, the receptionist uncle was quite friendly so we thought we can give this place a try.

After being seated, and we were given a order chit for ordering and I later saw the most ridiculous thing on earth, each person will be limited to 2 orders of Har gow (Prawn Dumplings)! I thought I read wrongly and double confirmed with the waitress, who sloppily reaffirmed it. We then decided that we'll just order ala carte, who will want a dim sum buffet that only let u order 2 har gows?! 

We then proceed to order spinach with salted egg, Squid ink Rice roll with Trio sauce, Salted yolk prawns and Steamed Glutinous rice in Lotus Leaf wrap

Spinach

Spinach tastes insincere, it tastes like they just cooked and threw the spinach in the metal pot and pour some egg sauce into it and heat up, if i need to say anything about it, the spinach is well cooked.

Squid ink rice roll with trio sauce

Squid ink rice roll tastes not bad, but it's drenched in sauce so its more like eating the sauce rather than rice roll. Sounds special but tastes mediocre.

Salted yolk prawn

Salted yolk prawn was nice, the crust is quite crispy and rich but we both grew sick of it from eating just one prawn.

Glutinous rice in lotus leaf wrap

That's just your regular glutinous rice in lotus leaf wrap, after the prawn we cannot down the glutinous rice anymore and we did not finish it.

Overall dining experience was just bad, it's not just the food, its the service crew there as well, they seem like they are on auto-zombie mode and the waitress in charge of our table, her sloppy attitude is worse than the food there.

Mouth Restaurant

Plaza Singapura
#02-01
Tel: 63377446

Parco Caffe

My 100th post. And it has to be a negative post, one that made me so unhappy I decided to cut my queue of unblogged entries to talk about this one first. It's Mother's Day dinner. We were throwing around some ideas of restaurants to try, and the first few were either veto-ed by some, or the restaurant doesn't accept reservations. In the end, after surfing through some of the Mother's Day promotions on Chope, we decided on trying out Parco Caffe. The promo was a free meal for mum, with at least 2 main courses ordered. There are 8 of us, so more than easy to hit the requirements. The menu looked great, so we were quite excited to try it out.

Our reservation was at 6.30pm. The ambience was actually pretty nice. Granted, some of us were late and orders were only placed at 7pm, but still didn't justify some of the service problems we encountered. No bread was served, in an Italian restaurant. I didn't see any on the menu either, but there was olive oil and balsamic vinegar provided on the table. So we asked, and was told yes, they serve bread, do we want? Hey, you're supposed to serve it whether we want or not, or at least ask before I ask you! Even then, no bread was served, and eventually two plates of pasta fritta (fried pasta) was served with some vague excuse about bread not yet ready. In an Italian restaurant! Oh my....

Drinks refill rate was horrible, even after several polite reminders from us. Generally we were being served by three servers, one was slightly smiley, one was a little of a poker face but still cordial, the last is a really dark faced guy. The kind of face that makes you feel you owe him something. That's the guy who asked if we wanted bread after we raised the question. And the thing that irritated us the most, is the rate of food service. By 8pm, 3 out of the 8 main courses never made it to our table, including the promotional mum's meal. Seriously, I would have thought that the promotional meal is the most ready item in their kitchen, given it's what attract many to the restaurant in the first place!

Now about the food. Food-wise, it's overall ok. Hits and misses, like most places. Their pizzas are thin crusted, which is something I like, but some people may find it not quite filling for the tummy. I'm not huge on Parma ham, so I ate Pizza Parco without much feelings or thoughts. The Herbal Chicken smelled fantastic when it was set down. An entire spring chicken bathed in a rich cocktail of Chinese herbs. It was pretty yummy. Only downside was the 'vegetables' mentioned in the menu seems to be limited to two pieces of lettuce at the bottom of the plate.

Last slice of Pizza Parco

Chef Jet's Herbal Chicken

I didn't try the lamb cutlet, but father-in-law seemed to enjoy it. For someone with his small appetite, he managed to finish the entire plate of 3 cutlets. Photo was only remembered after he polished off one. The foie gras was a miss. It didn't melt in my mouth, it wasn't full of livery goodness. Basically it just wasn't blissful. It was, however, considered cheap. $24 for 2 slabs of liver. Pity it wasn't tasty but I guess you get what you pay for. For that price, I'll rather go to Saveur's. Oh wait, why was I having foie gras in an Italian restaurant?

Parco Costine D’ Agnello - Lamb cutlet

Fegato - foie gras

Their version of Caprese was served with Parma Ham, which I requested to be on the side, so that the hubby can eat. It was two huge slices of Parma ham. I ate one slice. Still no love. Call me poor taste if you will, but I think I prefer good old bacon. The tomato slices are grilled slightly, which sets it apart from the usual Caprese. The final dish that made it to the table was the baked salmon. Wrapped in a packet of greaseproof paper, it was torn open in front of us by the server. This revealed a nicely done piece of fish, alongside some potatoes, and horrors, unopened clams. So we brought it up to the waiter, who (??) offered to open it for us. She attempted with M's fork and knife, and failed. L managed to open his, and found it sandy. So in the end, most of the clams were left uneaten.

Mozzarella Caprese e Parma

Salmone al Cartoccio - baked salmon

The kitchen apparently was ill-prepared for the Mother's Day crowded. We initially wanted Vongole Pasta, and was told it wasn't available. Ok, maybe not enough fresh clams that day. Our order of 24-hours cooked Kurobuta Pork rib had to be cancelled, also because it wasn't available. And what's more irritating is that I saw the table behind us, who came later, was brought a loaf of bread. After the hour long wait, we decided to cancel the last three dishes and go elsewhere for the three of us to eat. We called for the bill and I was charged full amount. I demanded a discount of the supposed free meal that never came. In the end, the manager came and gave me a goodwill discount of 30%.

Truth be told, the manager was very nice about it. If not for him, my impression of this restaurant will be totally down in the drains. I did see him in the kitchen trying to make things right before I cancelled our order, and I respect him for it. But it still doesn't justify how a restaurant failed to prepare for a big day, even after putting up a promotion. He said the kitchen was jammed from the crowd, and actually it's our table that jammed it. Seriously, I reserved last week. No excuse that you didn't know a table of eight is coming. As M put it "it's Mother's Day and my mother didn't get to eat!"



Parco Caffè at Raeburn Park 
(Off Spottiswoode Park Road)
10 Raeburn Park Block A 
#01-28 Singapore 088702
Tel: 6223 6338

Melben Seafood (Ang Mo Kio)

Finally got around to writing this post. Been wanting to do so since the day we ate here, but my neurotic side refused to write things without following chronological order.

It was a belated birthday celebration for L and me, the September babies, as well as E the October baby. Yes, it's stretched across more than a month but September was a bad month and we just couldn't find a common time for all 6 of us to meet. So finally we arranged for dinner. And I said I want crabs. So someone suggested Melben and off we went to Melben.

I had made the assumption that a HDB void deck coffeeshop wouldn't entertain reservations, so I didn't try for a reservation. Thinking that if we reach slightly before dinner time, we may be able to get a seat in a decent amount of time. I was wrong on both counts. They were not the usual void deck coffeeshop but more of a in-between of a coffeeshop and a restaurant, so it seems that they do entertain reservations. And I reached at 5.45, but we only got a table at almost 7pm.

Ok, my main qualms about this place. They really 吊起来买. I can't think a English counterpart for this phrase. Direct translation, it means that one hang oneself up to sell. Generally it means that one makes a big deal of him/herself/one's things to raise the rewards/price. Bad translation, I know. >_< Let's just say they are way too proud.

Queueing for a table was ok. I understand that there's a lot of patrons, and crabs isn't quite something you can rush through. So I dutifully stay in the line for more than an hour. We were given the menu while in the queue, so that we can place order before we get a seat. I was initially impressed. Hey, this means that I can get my food as soon as I sit down right? Wrong. When we placed our order at 6.15pm, all that happened was my order was scribbled onto an order chit, and that chit given to me. Duh. Finally we neared the front of the line at about 6.30pm. So finally, a lady came to get my chit from me at 6.35pm. In return, I got a card saying "Food Waiting time, 6.35 - 8.05", and was told that we placed order at 6.35pm, it means that we are not allowed (seriously??!!) to complain about food not served yet until 1.5 hours later, which is 8.05pm. 1.5 hours wait for my food, are you f***ing kidding me??!!

We got our table 10 minutes or so later, and settled down for our long long wait. Food was eventually served, granted, it was ahead of their cutoff. I believe they had intentionally overestimated the probable time to prevent people from bugging them. But still, it took 50 minutes from my point of order til my first dish was served. I'm not impressed. Yes, it's crowded, but if restaurants like Jumbo or Long Beach can serve up their food within 20 minutes despite their crowds, why can't Melben do the same?

I do not like waiting so long for my food!

Ok, enough about the impossible amount of waiting time. Let's get to the food. First dish that came up, stir fried baby kailan. Normal stir fried vegetables in oyster sauce that you can find in any coffeeshop's tze char stall. This was followed by Gung Pao Chicken - diced chicken fried with spring onion, onions and dried chilli. I found it on the salty side but still manageable. We also ordered a crispy seafood tofu. I think I preferred Ka Soh's.

Stir fried baby kai lan

Gung bao chicken

Fried Seafood tofu

Finally came the star of the night. Crabs. Ok, actually Melben is more well known for their white pepper crab. But I was so craving chilli crabs so we ordered that instead. It's actually pretty good crab. The sauce was a good balance of sweet, salty and sour. The thickness was just right. The crabs themselves were firm. However, another proud thing about Melben: they had a disclaimer in their menu. "No guarantee of the firmness of the crabs". Maybe not quite phrased the same way, but the gist of it is there. So if you get crappy, shrunken crabs, you have no grounds to complain.

Chilli crab

Fried buns to go with the chilli crab

The other signature dish of Melben's is their XO crab bee hoon soup. I do like the soup. It was creamy, with the sweetness from the crabs. But there was ALOT of bee hoon. They told us one serving serves about 4 pax. There were 6 of us, so we ordered additional bee hoon. On a nice note, they actually gave us an extra bowl of soup to go with the extra bee hoon. But the final amount of bee hoon was so much that each of us had to eat two (small) bowls. With all the other food and the buns, we were stuffed.

XO crab bee hoon

Overall, I think their food is decent. But the wait is totally not worth it. If it was a 30 minutes wait, I would say those were fantastic crabs. However, it was almost 2 hours wait in total. I expect ALOT more for 2 hours. As such, I won't return. Not to this branch anyway. They have another outlet in Toa Payoh. I may give that one a chance, and see how bad the wait is.

Fullhouse theme cafe

When I only contributed 2 out of 54 posts in the blog, Gracie decided that it's maybe time for me to contribute a little more.. Recent visit to Fullhouse theme cafe @ Rendevous Hotel, to be exact will be 2nd visit because they were fullhouse on my 1st visit (happened to be their grand opening).

So, finally 4 of us made a reservation and got a table in their "Living room", as usual, we arrived starved and decided to order some appetizers while waiting for SY to arrive. Food selection was quite limited so we thought that chicken sausages and french fries would be nice to start the dinner with.

Chicken sausage

Chicken sausages were served with some BBQ sauce and mashed potato, a great great disappointment, for $11.90, I won't be expecting 3 pathetic chicken franks (like those frozen ones u get from NTUC) lying on my plate. Even when they made some effort in making some cuts on it and covering it with some bbq sauce, it does not justify for the $11.90 we are paying for. Nevermind about the hotdog, mashed potatoes are decent, abit on the dry side and nothing to rave about. French fries were nice, crispy outside and soft fluffy inside, the kind of fries I'll like, I was so hungry that I forgot to make a picture of it... As usual.

Chicken chop with pepper and raisin sauce and mashed potato

Dory fillet with vegetables

Smoked salmon focaccia sandwich

Upon SY's arrival, we order our mains, which are chicken chop, smoked salmon sandwich, dory fish fillet. Chicken chop was nicely cooked, juicy with a crisp charred skin, I like the sauce with raisin which went quite well with the slightly dry mashed potato. Yes, it's the same mashed potato as the cheapo hotdog appetizer.

Dory fish fillet was nicely cooked, however the whole thing tasted like something you would expect from a chinese wedding dish. Fillets were placed on top of some Xiao bai cai, garnished with some dou miao, sauce was some lemon cream sauce but the taste of everything just felt chinese. LOL..

Smoked salmon sandwich tasted just like how it looks, bread abit dry, although I quite like the herb taste ( I think it's rosemary). Other than that, nothing much worth mentioning.

Next, some pictures on the interior....

Finally finished our meal and on our way out, one of the staffs asked about how we find the food, me being the frank me, commented on the chicken franks. I was nice and politely mentioned that for $11.90 they should have used better sausages rather than just chicken franks. The reply was stunning, the staff just told me jokingly that I should have looked at the picture on the menu first, I said there's no picture for appetizers, he then told me I should just order something else on the menu the next time I am there. He was not rude, I guessed he is just not trained to handle such situations, actually a simple "I would let the chef know, thank you for your feedback" would suffice.

Overall, it's a nice place to take pictures and have a group outing, they do have a wide selection of drinks on their menu and suitable for friends to chill and relax, service was good, staffs there are warm and friendly. In the "Bedroom", shopholics can also browse through their selection of clothings and accessories. Food and drinks, in my opinion is quite pricey and if i were to go back, it definitely will not be for their food.

The Tastings Room

Finally got around to posting this entry. Despite being dated a while back, the opinions are still clearly imprinted in my mind. Here's why...

This restaurant was highlighted to us through a Groupon. Seeing the description sounded like a French fine dining restaurant, and the deal was going at $36 for a 4 course meal, we thought, why not? So we got two vouchers, and Lynn and me decided to try it out. We made reservation for the Friday before CNY, thinking it could be our own little reunion dinner. The reservation was made one week in advance, because I was worried that many who bought the Groupon might have the same idea.

Nevermind that the restaurant didn't call me to remind me. Not all restaurants do that so it didn't bother me at all. What bothered me, ALOT, was when we reached there. My name was no where on the small piece of paper carrying the names of the reservations. It didn't help that the pokerface waitress had a similar poker attitude. She went through the list several times, asking me for my name several times as well. Despite my 5th repetition of 'My name is Gracie', she kept asking me "Is it Nancy? Is it xxx? Is it yyy?" etc. It was beginning to become difficult to hold my annoyance. She finally went to a big notebook beside the phone, and finally found my name and contact number on that book. Apparently the name never got transferred to the 'reservation of the day' slip of paper. After consulting her manager, she came back, still pokerfaced, saying that the only available seats are outdoor. I got mad, and rejected the outdoor seat. We ended up at Hippopotamus for a much happier dinner instead.

However, since I've already paid for the Groupon, we have to return for our meal eventually. So a few days later, I called up, made a feeble complain (chicken-hearted me was afraid that if I kick up too big a fuss, I may end up never getting a reservation and let my voucher go wasted) and remade a reservation for a week later. Turned out Lynn had to go to Malaysia to visit her sick grandma. So I called up and postponed the reservation by another week.

On the day itself, Lynn reached 3 minutes before I did. As I was walking over, I called her and found that my name isn't on the stupid list again. I reached there in a fuming mood, and didn't hide my irritation from the waitress. But this time it's a nice lady, no longer Miss Pokerface. She was more helpful, found my name in the book again, and was able to get us an indoor seat. But it didn't quench my irritation at the management. Come on, what are the odds of losing my name TWICE!!!

The Groupon deal had 2 options per course. Since there were two of us, we told them we want one each of everthing. After flipping through the menu, we also excitedly ordered an additional House Fries, which was described as 'truffle fries served with truffle mayonnaise'.

The appetizers were Tomato Bruschetta with Mozzarella Gratin, and Pan Seared Scallop with Salmon Roe. The scallop paled in comparison to Ember's, but it was still nice. We couldn't figure out what the sauce actually is. The salmon roe was a little on the salty side. The bruschetta had slipped my memory already so I guess nothing to rave about. We did enjoy the wild rocket leaves and balsaemic dressing. The soups were Seafood Smoked Vine Tomato soup, and truffle mushroom puree soup. We preferred the mushroom soup, but I really don't remember any truffle taste or aroma in it. The tomato soup was more like a puree - I felt that it would have made a good pasta sauce. It was nonetheless better than the burnt tomato paste we had in Bedrock's (I'm sorry, I know it was a signature dish, but it really turned both of us off tomato soup for a very long time...). There was a few small pieces of prawn, squid and fish. Thankfully no crabstick that many places like to classify as 'seafood'.

Pan-seared scallop with Salmon Roe

Tomato bruschetta with mozzarella gratin

Truffle mushroom puree soup

Seafood smoked vine tomato soup

Our fries was another joke. A waiter came with a sauce, and told us it was the dip for the house fries. I looked at it, and felt that it looked like Tartar sauce. I tasted it, and told Lynn it tasted like McDonald's tartar sauce. She tried it and agreed. So we flagged down a passing waitress, and asked her if that was supposed to be the 'truffle mayonnaise', cause it really look and taste like a tartar sauce. She said she think her colleague made a mistake, apologized, and took the sauce away. The first waiter then came back with our fries. When we pointed out that our 'truffle mayonnaise' haven't been brought, he looked surprised, and asked us where was the sauce he brought us. I told him that was tartar sauce, and his colleague had brought it back to change. He subsequently returned with a dish of mayonnaise, said that what he brought me earlier was the correct dip, but since we didn't like it (I never said that I didn't like anything), he brought us regular mayonnaise instead. Lynn sarcastically told me she didn't know truffle mayonnaise comes from Mcdonald's, and I even more sarcastically added "的 filet o' fish". The fries are actually pretty decent thick cut fries. If they had called it 'US fries' or something, it will fit the description nicely. However, we could only taste faint wisp of truffle every 5 fries or something. And to have that with tartar sauce, well....... It really doesn't live up to the 'Truffle fries' name.

Truffle fries

The mains are the biggest disappointments. Pesto Cream Fettucine with 'Sous Vide' Chicken Breast, and Squid Ink Linguine with Fresh Calamari. The pesto cream was actually quite nice, and we did finish up the fettucine. I just googled and found that 'Sous Vide' is a method of cooking food sealed in a water-tight plastic bag dunked in less than usual cooking temperature (typically about 60 degrees celsius) for extended period of time. It's supposed to give more evenly cooked food with correct doneness throughout. But I thought the chicken slices tasted medium well or something. It was still a little pink. Not being comfortable with eating uncooked chicken, we left those aside. The squid ink pasta was the worst of all the dishes. I have no problem with squid ink. I grew up eating my mom's recipe of squid cooked in its own ink, and I love it. But this squid ink pasta tasted like plastic. I gave up after 1 mouth. Lynn actually managed a few more mouths before she too gave up. The calamari were quite tasteless. First time in a very long time that I returned an almost full plate of food. The waitress either didn't notice, or didn't care to ask why. That had to be the worst pasta I've ever eaten in my entire life.

Squid ink linguine with fresh calamari

Pesto cream fettucine with sous vide chicken breast

The desserts were Earl Grey Creme Brulee, and Warm Banana Cake with Ice Cream. This was the only part that made an impression. The earl grey creme brulee was very nice. Creamy creme brulee with a good, strong, but not overpowering flavor of earl grey tea. We liked it. The banana cake must have been passable because I don't have any recollection of it at all. Oh, I vaguely remember something about it being too sweet.

Earl grey creme brulee

Warm banana cake with ice cream

Given the bad service I received even before I dined there, I already knew that the food have to be super fantastic in order to convince me to return. Of course, the food failed. The only thing we found that could differentiate it from other restaurants was the earl grey creme brulee. Not likely we'll return just for desserts. Even at $36, I didn't think it was worth the money. I definitely will not pay the original $72 for that quality of food. I noticed that they have put up a Groupon again. Warning to those interested - do not take it up!

The Uncle Sam's Claypot

I happened to be alone in City Square mall looking for dinner, and this restaurant crossed my mind. I had passed by a few months ago when I went there with hubby, and thought it looked promising.

This time round it's no different. I walked up to the entrance and my nose caught a whiff of a burnt smell, suggesting that the rice were authentically cooked in the claypot (as opposed to heaping cooked rice into the heated claypot). There was a set meal promotion too - choice of a claypot rice/noodle, a soup and a drink at $10.80++. Sounded ok, so in I went.

I chose chicken claypot rice, watercress pork rib soup and soy bean milk. The soy bean milk disappointed me with it's packet drink flavor. Belacan chilli was brought up to me while I waited for my food, and it smelled pretty good.

My food arrived after a good 15 minutes wait. Look at the photo and you will notice something is wrong. The chicken and other stuff are piled ON the rice. This means that they weren't cooked together with the rice. As a result, the rice was completely bland. And I was halfway through the bowl before I had a bite of salted fish - it turned out to be the only bite. When I reached the end, I did see enough charred rice at the bottom to make me believe the rice were indeed cooked in the claypot. Pity the sauce and chicken just wasn't flavorful enough. The chilli turned out to be pretty average too. The soup was ok, in a very normal way. Think the soup you get from a coffeeshop chicken rice stall.

Verdict: not worth the time, money, and stomach space. The claypot rice at Ang Mo Kio is much better, and cheaper too. I asked for it didn't I? Going to a fancy place for a coffeeshop food.