Cartel

I was having cravings for pasta aglio olio style... i kinda remember cartel having something similiar.. the black pepper fish pasta.... so i headed down to the siglap branch for lunch...



their menu....



flipping thru the colourful menu with lotsa pics makes me wana try so many of the items that i've tried before / never tried... heh.. so.. i kinda fixed a dinner date for here, tonight. hee hee

my black pepper fish pasta.....



its the dry kinda pasta with big chunks of fish fillet, some mushrooms and lotsa pepper.. so the taste is great. i like it!

and the country nuggets....



Each time i order their country nuggets, im actually secretly hoping they will revert back to the heart shaped chicken nuggets they once had. When Cartel just started they had that kinda nuggets and its so good. Not only is it cute (coz its heart shaped), its also yummilious! The meat inside is tender and tasty. But now well, its alright but nowhere near the heart shaped ones.

OH! i'm soooooooo upset that they removed the munchers off the menu!!! The munchers are soooo nice! They are some deep fried cheesy like thingy with small potato bits inside. NO LONGER AVAILABLE! =( and i duno where else i can find them!

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Dinner...

loh gong zai and myself arrived first. while waiting for dar, loh gong zai agreed with me that the cartel menu really makes many of the items on the menu really appetising... (looks like we'll be back again! haha!)

Loh gong zai ordered a set meal which comes with soup of the day...



some chicken soup like cream soup with carrot bits .. the normal cream soup.

we shared a supreme platter ($9.50)...



comes with combination of breaded crab claws, breaded calamari, breaded scallop, chicken nuggets and chedder crisp potato. on the way, the items were ok.. u koe, finger food. just nice to share between the 3 of us coz each item came in quantity of 3.

we also shared a chicken chef's salad ($9.70)...



the portions seemed to have strunk... but the items still looked fresh... a hearty salad with chicken, ham, cheese, egg and a tasty vinaigrette sauce.

for mains, hehe.. i... hur hur hur... ordered the pepper fish pasta ($13.20)....



i guess from my behaviour, u can already tell how much i like it and... haha.. if u koe me well enuff, this is not surprising.... =p im 'faithful' (rather) to my food!

loh gong zai was so funny. He ordered the oxtail stew ($15.20)... and he told me he had earlier on checked on cartel's website (to check out the place first) before meeting me and saw it on their online menu....haha...



anyway, the oxtail stew was really good! the stew was really tasty.. meat was really tender... mmMMMMM! NICE! would be better if the portion (specifically referring to the meat) was bigger.

Dar dar ordered the hawaiian chicken leg ....



a closer up view....



This hawaiian chicken was not as nice as we thot it'd be. i mean, its not bad but well, just not there.

if u're going to cartel, another item i highly recommend is their baked macaroni.. cream sauce based. that one is also.. POWER! Mmm mmm!

and desserts, we shared one of my all time favourite, east side brownie stack!



SINFULLY GOOD! The brownie is served warm wif nuts in between and texture is just nice. Thick chocolate fudge flows over the brownie and goes especially well wif the scoop of ice cream!

den dar and i were occassionally catching glimpse of wats screening on tv thru the reflection and loh gong zai being the usual joker said this is cartel's strategy to ensure that all customers gets to watch the tv....



haha.. u should just hear it from his mouth. damn hilarious.

Golden Cafe

Golden Cafe.... (near circular road, at the back of boat quay)



i ordered something soupy again... mushroon and chicken soup..



At first mouth, lea and i looked at each other and went.. " eerrrr " den i commented.. " pepper soup loh "... and we both luffed in agreement. But honestly, after a few mouths, it actually tasted not bad. the chicken looked like it was originally meant to be fried inside. costs ard $4 plus $5 i think.

Lea ordered a french fries which was a hugeeeee plate... ard $4 or $5 also...



the fries were pretty good!! this is coming from a non fries lover (me) and a fries lover (Lea). haha

den we saw this other table having some sort of noodles and it looked pretty good. so we ended up ordering beef hor fun. The server recommended we haf the dry version since we were ordering soup. and so we did...



it tasted totally like fried kway tiao with beef slices.. and when i made dat comment, lea went.. " omg, i totally forget its beef hor fun... ate it like its fried kway tiao ".... haha.. but after a few more mouths, lea and i decided that although this hor fun tasted like kway tiao, it actually began to taste pretty good. hahhaa

oh.. also, crabby was the one who took the pics for the food.

Hey Hey Hotpot

Dinner was at Hey Hey Hotpot. Heard about this hotpot from tv sometime ago. apparently boss is this actor from mediacorp, not sure of his name but think he's more into doing the stunts parts.. but dar dar said she heard Terence Cao is the boss. We did see both of them in the shop though.. so maybe they're co-owners.

Hey Hey Hotpot is located at Parklane (right next to Tao's restaurant and Juju).....



if it helps, this place used to be Partybox.

The interior of the place.....





the reason why i was interested in this place was not because of the owners (just u case u thot otherwise) but because they server dim sum steamboat! meaning u're to cook the dim sum items in the steamboat or wat u would call, hotpot....



they have a selection of about 5 different types of broth.....



Superior double-boiled Winter Melon Broth $23
Superior Chicken Broth with Fish Maw & Coconut $23
Superior double-boiled Shark's Broth $23
Double-boiled Herbal Chicken Broth $18
HEY HEY Special Broth $18

We took the Superior double-boiled Winter Melon Broth $23 and the HEY HEY Special Broth $18 which i will speak more about later.

The sauces are actually placed on trolley carts and moved from table to table for you to DIY....



Firstly, they will serve you wif peanuts and some beancurd....



the beancurds were alright... which are later charged to the bill at $2.80.

we were recommended to order the fried wanton which came in a very special outlook...



the wanton was alright in my view.. Jiamiao thot it was pretty good. so i guess u'll hafta try it for urself.

and fried fish skin.....



the fried fish skin was pretty good. it was crispy and had that slight fishy taste (in the good sense).

next up was our soup. Superior double-boiled Winter Melon Broth.

Arrived in a very unique big pot with winter melon in the middle and nicely decorated wif prawns, crabmeat, scallops and ham....



a closer up view....



and the server served us on the soup....



placing the ingredients into the winter melon step by step....



The soup was so delectable! was really good!

till this point, the experience at Hey Hey, though not fantastic, was still alright. The service staff wise, only one particular auntie was really polite and made us felt welcome. aside from that, the rest of the staff kinda looked like we probably owed them $1 million.

so anyway, wat happened was the Hey Hey Special Broth arrived...



it tasted a bit spicy and some of them said it has this mutton taste. and this is actually coming from lamb and mutton lovers. My dar, andy zai, loh gong zai are those who really like mutton and lamb. but they said the taste was really unbearable for them. so naturally, we tried to ask for an exchange but we were rejected even before we tried to explain why.. and of coz, the rejections were given in a very rude tone. One of the server even told us that they cant change it coz the kitchen is very busy.

anyone who has tried steamboat before would know that for steamboat, you get to keep refilling the broth. we're not even asking for the broth to be replaced like the first broth serving.. we're merely hoping that out of goodwill, seeing that none of us dared to even touch that whole pot of broth, they can allow us to throw that pot away and change the broth with refills. I mean, to begin with their broth was not clearly explained on the menu that it would taste spicy and haf a strong mutton taste. although its not their fault, out of goodwill, any decent restaurant would do the change. even if its due to the price difference, they can always replace it wif the chicken broth that costs exactly the same.

So, imagine having 8 pax sharing only one pot! it was so inconvenient. i guess there are different school of thots of doing business. One that takes pride in ensuring that the customers have a good and satisfactory time.. another one is the mercenary way ... Or maybe, they were merely more interested to attend to customers who were from the media line (which we kinda noticed a couple of tables wif media personnel)..

so all in all, no, we DID NOT ENJOY THE MEAL because half the time, 4 pax was waiting for the other 4 to cook the items for them. the other pot, we simply just switched it off.

some of the items we ordered....



sliced scallops, sliced fish.

meat balls, golden mushrooms, beef slices and corn...



Drunken prawns....



And the interesting part... the dim sum....

some vegetable dim sum...



this vege dim sum was just ok.

another meat and vege dim sum...



was also ok.

The har gao...



the har gao was really good. It comes wif this cream/cheese like thingy.. was honestly good. i'm not gonna belittle it just coz of the bad service we received. this item is a must try.

the custard bun....



the custard bun is also another must try. check out the cute lil bun... after you take it out from the pot, it all watery and creamy... its so good!

some crab roe dim sum...



the exterior is some fish ball like texture.. the interior is some fish roe like substance. pretty different but taste alright only.

char siew bao....



another cute looking bun but taste was just alright.

when the bill came, it came up to around $300+. After checking thru, we realised there was a number of wrong billing. After correcting them, the bill came up to around $270+. So be very sure to check ur bill if you do intend to visit them. $270 for 8 person works up to around $34 per person. Ridiculously expensive if you ask me especially since we definitely didnt eat alot. Even a slightly higher end steamboat place ard Liang Seah street (eg. Xian De Lai) costs only $17.80 plus per person. And Xian De Lai offers BUFFET. this is ala carte!

No doubt the dim sum was interesting... but there was only about 6 - 7 of dim sum items (we ordered all of them). of which probably only the har gao and custard bun left an impression so no, dun think we'll be back especially not after the lousy service we got. They are obviously not interested in our business anyway. The service of JuJu Hotpot right beside, wins them hands down.

Phin's Steakhouse

Dinner at Phin's @ Tampines Mall....



located at the top floor of tampines mall.

i ordered a tenderloin steak, humongous cut ($29.90). i ordered based on my memory of my previous visit to the Phin's at Liang Seah Street. the humongous was really humongous... and the tenderloin was seriously tender.

i was humongous-ly disappointed...



i was pretty shocked by their humongous portion and i actually checked with the servers twice to confirm its really the tenderloin humongous. They confirmed it is. So, alright.

and because i didnt want the sizzling hotplate, i requested for it to be done medium instead of medium rare....



it may look like medium but seriously, it was pretty tough.

Service of the place was pretty ok... staffs were polite i'd say but i was pretty disappointed with the steak.

Fish & Co.

Dinner at fish & co. Parkway with Kaifon. Although he suggested the place, he said its his first visit here. haha

Kaifon ordered a clam chowder to share....



was pretty good. thick with pretty generous serving of clams.

i ordered a garlic and lemon mussels....



ordered it mainly for the sauce and a rice to go with it....



i quite like the rice from fish and co., with the raisins and all but the rice today wasnt as nice.

kaifon had actually wanted to order their pasta but i told him this place is better known for their fish dishes so he changed to order a fish and chips instead....



which was pretty good.

dinner was his treat.. thank cute~

but u know, when i got home, he smsed me saying my dinner was on sg pools coz he struck toto (or was it 4D)! im his lucky charm la! haha

Wild Rocket

Barnie suggested Wild Rocket for dinner because apparently after reading my previous entry on the best burger, Barnie has been salivating for it over the last few days. We were very lucky that when i called, we managed to get reservations at very last minute basis.

Wild Rocket's is located at Mount Emily....



the interior of the place....



the complimentary bread....



we shared a salmon carpaccio ($11)....



A closer up view....



each piece of salmon was very thinly sliced.. overall it was pretty good.

for sides, Barney ordered a sweet potates (ard $4.50) which the server recommended....



at first bite we were quite disappointed but the second try was better. the side where it was slightly salty and charred was nice to slowly savour but sweet potato was not exactly our cuppa tea. But maybe Ailian or my dad would like it.

I ordered the crab meat mash ($4.50)...



this was preferred over the sweet potatoes by the 3 of us. in comparison, its also more worth it den the sweet potatoe.. taste wise was not bad.. would haf loved to haf more crab meat but i guess for that price, its pretty reasonable.

for mains, we were really upset to find out that they burgers were not served for dinner. truth be told, i myself was very much looking forward to the burger again. so in the end, i settled for the seafood crustacean oil spaghetti ($20) because my memory tells me this was really good as well....



A closer up view...



true enuff, my memory didnt fail me. This proved to be still as tasty with that strong seafood taste mainly attributed to the crab meat and prawns (was telling lea.. hey! dats us!.. haha)... Lea said this dish had this punch to it... its so good!

Lea ordered the star anise braised beef brisket spaghetti....



a closer up view...



the taste was a very oriental kinda beef taste. it was ok but didnt haf that punch as wat lea would call it.

and Barnie was recommended the braised lemongrass ginger lamb shank and garlic potato mash ($26.50)....



Barnie said there was this glow in the server's eyes when she gave her recommendation... saying its the best dish she has tried from here. Lea and myself dun take mutton or lamb.. we tried like one small bite each but seriously, we cant judge. Barnie said he felt cheated. haha