Modern Pacific - Tao's (First visit)

It was upon recommendation by Meina during one of our mahjong sessions that makes me wana try Tao Restaurant.



Of coz, before that i've already watched that "wo yao zhi ge.. wo yao zhi ge" and den made the server almost go crazy advertisement and heard about Tao's.

Meina gave her thumbs up recommendation for Tao's. However, despite how i probed, she was unable to explain what kind of food Tao's serve.

Me:"hmm.. wat kinda cuisine"
Meina:"very hard to explain... i really duno how to say"
Me:"maybe u dun hafta tell me cuisine but... maybe u can tell me wat kinda dishes they serve? eg. Chawanmushi? Steak?"
Meina:"no, not chawanmushi... very hard to explain.. i really duno how to tell u wat they serve"
Now DAT got me really puzzled, curious and eager to find out!
Me:"or like wat do they serve.. at least tell me if its chicken? beef? duck?"
Meina:"not i dun wana tell u.. its really very special.. i duno how to tell u"

Wah liew... so special ah? MUSTTTTT TRY!

n so we went today!

Allow me to try to explain to u Tao's. LOL



This is their menu.



I hope u can see it clearly. If i recall correctly their lunch is around $19.80 per set and dinner is around $24.80 per set.

The lunch set consists of Starters, Salads, Soups, Main, Dessert and Beverage. the only difference between lunch and dinner is dinner has an additional Grilled Mushroom.

If after ordering the set u want to order something else extra, you can. They have an ala carte menu. On the average the starters, soup and desserts are around $3.50 to $4.80. The mains are around.. $13.80 to.. $16.80 ( if i recall correctly la).

We were first served the Starters.



The Bacon & Mushroom Gratin were served to us by a very soft-spoken waiter. He was not only soft-spoken but very smiley! Very good service! He even introduced the different ingredients of the gratin to us and adviced us to slowly spread it on the toasted bread.

I know Levine likes it very much. I personally find it ok though i think if its slightly saltier, i'll like it better. But it really is quite nice.

next, we were served our salads....



Totally DIG Levine's seasonal cocktail's salad sauce. Its abit like soya sauce colour, tastes a little sourish like vinegar and a little taste of wasabi. Despite not being a wasabi lover, i love the sauce.

Dar dar's Huai San, according to a waiter, is some chinese herb that's good for complexion and detox.

To me, it tastes crunchy (abit like radish) but is surrounded by a layer of gluey and sticky texture. I personally don't dislike it but i don't like it either. Its most probably an acquired taste.

My ham and spud is the safest thing to order i guess. Its really like normal salad, the ham dat i believe almost everyone likes, the veges and u see that whiteish thing in the middle? Its half a potato (very nice potato) covered with a layer of mayo like sauces and topped with some cheese. NICE!

Icy arrived while we were having our salads and dar dar was advising her on what to order and how the dinner works.

haha.. basically we were... 'advising' her not to order those that we've ordered.

We were served our grilled mushroom.



This is the item that's only available for dinner. Its taste was not bad.

Next, we were at our soup ....



Before i tell u about the soup, i was observing this server who was serving us....



Him! I find dat he looks like the server who's in the Tao's advert! And so we asked him. N he admitted he is the one! haha.. n Levyne went.. " can she (meaning me) take a pic of u? "

He was very friendly and nice. He tried to tell us he'll take a pic with all of us later (which was unnecessary actually) so we told him we just wana take a pic of him serving us. HAHA! n he graciously agreed. He was joking around with us the whole night and i gotta say, all their staff give VERY GOOD SERVICE! VERY!

Oki, back to our soup. My clam and garlic soup. We ordered it expecting it to be a cream based soup and so was very surprised to see that its clear soup. It feels very much like the juan lor (ie.steamboat) soup base. The clam smell is very strong. Too strong in fact. Makes it too.... calmy.

Levine and Icy ordered the cream of mushroom soup. It was ... ok. Not bad but not special u see. We're expecting to taste different and special food. haha.. but seriously it tastes alright.

Den it was Dar dar's fish soup. Wah.. came in very special 'bowl'. In teapot form and a small cup. Looks like those ancient times wheres the pugilistic warriors drink wine huh?

Our mains...



The Stew Beef with Rice Japanese Style was... VERY NAP AH!!! VERY VERY NICE AH!!! The sauce was very beeeefy!

But according to Icy, the rice was.. abit too dry..

But the stew was... WOOO! Power!

N den it was dar dar's sting ray which looked very appetising. But i didn't try it coz i don't really like spicy stuff. Dar dar said its really quite spicy.

I ordered the oven roasted steak. Also veryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy nice! I asked for the steak to be medium and it was nicely done.

Lastly was Levine's cod fillet. Also very nice! The quantity was just nice and the baking totally brought out the taste of the cod fish. The sauce also went very well with the cod fish. *YUM*

We were then served our desserts....



Levine ordered the yang sheng cocktail. It tastes abit like some red dates syrup with white fungus bits. A very refreshing taste as well.

Icy ordered the green tea ice cream. It was nice!

N dar dar and myself ordered creme brulee. Yummy also!

Finally it was the drinks...



I know i know... orange juice is very normal. But i just felt like having it!! N so did the many guys on the table beside me. I can't deny i was semi influenced. The orange juice was.. NICE LOH!

Levyne ordered the iced fruit tea which was... funny to me. The taste was like... sweet not sweet... sour not sour. =x keke...

Icy ordered the Ice Summer Peach Tea. They all said its got pineapple taste. As for me, i felt dat its got ... table taste. U must be thinking ??~!!??? wat table taste? I duno.. its just very teak very woody taste. But it a special taste. Not bad one. Can try.

Finally dar dar's Ice Rose Apple Tea was the best taste one! It was sweet but the after taste was very good! It lingers in the mouth!

Their last order is at 9.30 pm. Dar dar had actually wanted to order an extra main... the tao's grilled chicken. (the guys on the other table were having it). But we were too late.

Western - China Jump (My birthday celebration)

Vreniz and i took a cab over to chijmes chinajump for dinner.



Love the atmosphere. For a special reason i really like China Jump!

n so we ordered...



The food was not bad but one thing to note is that their serving is pretty slow........ tip: when u order things, try to order all at a go or they will take a long time to serve.

After our mains, Vreniz ordered the mama of all desserts!



Its a super big ice cream bowl and according to the menu, if you can finish it on ur own, they will issue u a certificate!

Vreniz asked me to substitute this ice cream as a birthday cake. Thank you so much girl. Im very touched by all that u've done!

Cafe - Mr Beans Cafe

After dinner, Dearest Jo asked to meet up for drinks so she came to pick me up. We went over to Mr Beans cafe.

we ordered...



i was too full to help Jo eat anything. I only had my usual peach soda. But i did try a bite of her country pie (my all time fav @ Mr Beans) but it was damn damn damn disappointing. Its very very dry and not nice anymore. The bottom part of the pie should be semi wet. But sadly this one was super dry.

As Jo was eating, i pointed out to her... u realised u ordered... Potato(samosa), potato(country pie), potato(french fries)?



she started luffing and she went.. "why don't u say i ordered carbohydrates, carbohydrates, carbohydrates?"



and so i went.. "oki.. u ordered FAT, FAT, FAT!"



hahaha.. and we both started luffing.

Western - Secret Recipe (First Visit)

Dar dar asked me out for dinner with her and andy zai at Secret Recipe.



The Secret Recipe at Plaza Singapura is the open concept kind.

These are our orders....



The first pic is pumpkin soup which dar dar complains that it tasted like curry sauce. haha.. Next is that of some mushroom sauce chicken chop (can't remember the exact name) and lastly is the seabass with some very yummy sauce. The sauce tastes abit like the Fish & Co.'s garlic lemon sauce. I LIKE! But this sauces is slightly more oily.

I ordered the chicken cordan bleu.



Its... erm.. not bad.. different i guess. But not very fantastic.

We took interest in this mini hamburger thingy on the kid's menu when we peeped and saw some little girl on another table digging into it.

The mini hamburgers were YuMMY! The beef patty was nice. Even the bread was saltishly tasty!! Instead of fries, it was served with some alphabet harshbrowns.



If you refer to the second pic, don't go puzzling why i formed the word SHOOT. It was simply coz that was like the only word with can form with the selected alphabets we had.

and our drinks.....



apple juice and iced lemon tea...

finally, if u go secret recipe, u really should NOT MISS out the desserts! Yes yes, i know i had just tried their cakes yesterday. But yesterday i didnt buy their marble cheese cake!



Their marble cheese cake is ... JUST VERY NICE. I shall not raise ur hopes or interest. Lets just say i really like it very much! The brownie also went very well with the ice cream. Its not very sticky. Dar and myself loved it.

Others - Maison De Poupee (Sonia's birthday celebration)

Today we celebrated Sonia's belated birthday. I found out about this place serving cheese fondue, tiramisu fondue, cheese fondue. Its called Maison De Poupee.



Located at Armenian street. Its a Bistro and Boutique concept.



This is the interior of the place.

They have a side which is the boutique...



and the other side which is the bistro....



We were there mainly for the fondue. I kinda got to know this guy from a forum (i think he's the boss of the place) and he informed me that they have different kinda fondues there. Tiramisu, cheese, chocolate, etc. Dat just got me SO interested. Most importantly, they're reasonably priced! Only about $14+ per pot. Swiss Culture's one is abt $30+ or $40+ per pot?

I pretty much like the deco of the place. It gives a very Hong Kong-ish feeling. But there were no other customers aside from us. (i wonder how they survive)

The first pot of fondue that arrived was the cheese fondue....



Each pot of fondue comes with 8 small dishes of dippers. In our case she gave us 7 dishes of bread cubes and 1 dish of cherry tomatoes. It was YUMMY!! very nice!! much cheaper den Swiss Culture for sure.

Sonia and i loved the cheese fondue. Seth didn't eat much but he said he likes the cheese one better den the chocolate one.



The dippers for the chocolate fondue includes strawberry, peach, fruits cocktails and marshmallows. The chocolate was too watery and not hot enuff. Overall i wouldnt say its nice.

Sadly they were out of the tiramisu one.

Chinese - Crystal Jade Xiao La Mian

These are the food we ordered today...



Wuite a feast (again!). Realised that crystal jade xiao la mian has changed abit of their menu. They don't have dar dar and my favourite dessert anymore. N they don't have my favourite tea smoked eggs anymore! =(

Lok Lok (Johor Bahru)

We didnt eat till we were super full.. coz Deanie say wana bring me go eat Lok Lok!! hee... since the previous time we were here he had already wanted to bring me for Lok Lok! But there were no stalls open at dat time.. hee..... today we had LOK LOK!!



The lok lok stalls are all in the form of a vehicle.



wow.. so many varieties!

Here's some of the things we had...



These are only the fried stuff. they had boiled stuff too which are obviously less yummy =x
The last pic is dat of bird (i duno wat bird.. i would guess its pigeon..i only stole a bite from deanie's.. tasted abit like chicken but deanie said its nicer den chicken)

the prawns were upon Deanie's recommendation and it was really POWER!!

But i think after my investigation, credits of how yummy their food is should go to....



The spices they used!

The food were so good dat initially CHK Andy who didnt want to get down the car coz he said hes very full, got down to join us when he saw us having so much fun and all the yummy food!


CHK Andy is happily slowly choosing his food...



haha.. see how happy he is...

The 2 owners of the lok lok stalls were also very cute and funny. Or rather they were just amused by us.. haha...

Steamboat (Johor Bahru)

Deanie brought us to have steamboat! The restaurant had a very nice interior decoration.



behind all the curtains were tables and the tables were all japanese style. Customers were seated on the floors. The atmosphere was there! Sitting on the floor eating steamboat... shiiiok! The whole atmosphere of the place was very cozy and ideal for gatherings. Too bad its in JB.




This is the menu.

and the servers were setting up the table....



their sauces are self service by the way.. but we had our own personal server called Deanie =x

Our orders were...



Our soup base was Ma La Soup & Chicken Soup. We had a medium set plus an additional order of beef slices and golden mushrooms.

Deanie also ordered 2 extra dishes of fried yu tiao (which everyone said is very nice but i dun like) and San Bei Ji (which according to dean was cooked using 3 cups of water and some wine).

The ladies ordered bubble tea...



Steamboat with bubble tea.. nice~ but the guy's beer were nicer!


The steamboat food was ok. Ingredients were very fresh. I was so suprised that even the chicken breast meat was so so so tender! Oooooo~*



everyone enjoyed the food.

oh.. n there were only 2 small little bird eggs. i had one of it and the last one was pushed to deanie... he had to shell it upon our commands and eat it n pose with it! (we bully him!! haha)

we finished all the food...



it wasnt exactly alot n it was only around SGD$17 per person because they ordered beer as well. N oh.... allow me to mention that THEIR BEER VERY VERY VERY NICE! i duno why. But the guys were actually sharing the beer but dar dar and i tried and we were semi addicted to it. Its so so nice!! Deanie says its coz of the glass they use to hold the beer. Not mug kind. He said dats why we think its very nice. Not sure how true but the beer was just very nice!

Western - Fishermen's Wharf

I met up with ah yee, uncle sq and ping jie jie for dinner at fishermen's wharf.





This was basically the restaurant that we passed by when we went for ah yee's bridal fitting the other day and ping jie jie said she would like to celebrate her birthday this year over here. But in the end i guess they celebrated it at some restaurant at Novena Square.


today is kinda a belated belated celebration for ping jie jie coz i din attend her bday celebration this yr and also to thank uncle sq for helping me print the so so many pages MOR project (though now after calculations it seems more wu hua if i bought ink cartridges instead! LOL)


Anyway, it was a good thing that they din celebrate it here!


Coz they basically served fish & chips, fish & chips & fish & chips!


Nothing else!


oki.. maybe a few side orders like.. bread and butter? coleslaw? dats about it!


u must be thinking.... cannot be la.....


"got soup?"


"nope"


"got calarmari?"


"noooope"


"oysters?"


"noooooooope"


"got desserts?"


"bo"


"got fruits?"


"mei you..."


Oki, stop trying so hard! dun haf meanssss dunch haf! =z


its REALLY just fish and chips.... n if it makes u abit happier, its different types of fish and chips (which isnt really DAT much of a difference in taste)


as there were 4 of us, we decided to order the 4 different types of fish on the menu and share a chicken fingers.


Due to some miscommunication, we apparently ordered 5 different types of fishes... n even the cream dory fillet ( i duno if it had the same effect on u .... but it sounded to me like it'll be some grilled fillet with creamy sauce...)... turned out to be...





honestly doesnt matter which one i show u first coz aside from the shape they basically look the same to me and taste more or less the same.. the last pic is a combination of all the fish after we cut each dish into 4.


if i recall correctly .. one's snow fish... one's sole fish... one's dory.. cant remember the rest... basically just fish & chips la!


*disappointing oki*


Truth be told, Fish & Co.'s fish and chips is much much nicer.... though im not much of a fish n chips person to begin with.. i usually order the platter when i'm there


next time we pass by the restaurant (its actually located right opposite Clarke Quay MRT station), all desires and yearns for the place would have died....


i mean, seriously, the boss of the place if u're reading this, rather den spending time on coming up with all the different different type of sauces for the food.....





(i think one's tar tar, one's mayo, one's curry mayo or mustard and cant remember)


or even coming up with different variety of fries by calling them chips (which they basically LOOK VERY SIMILAR)





i specially put the 2 together into a basket.. can anyone really see substantial difference?? (though honestly the chips aka fresh cut potatoes, taste better), the fries are ok as well...


point is, do u honestly need 2 varieties of fries???


cant u just haf more variety in ur main course and probably add in some dessert?


the decor of the place was alright....





no air-con... but ping jie jie complained abt the uncomfy chairs.


surprisingly for such an ulu place, it was pretty packed. for a weekday night... probably many working class wld pass by that place after work before going over to the mrt station.


Price wise it was ok i guess... the different fish n chips were priced from $6.50 to $14.50 ( i think). The total bill (inclusive of 4 cans of drinks) came up to $62. n oh... they ONLY accept cash n nets.. (how kuku is dat????)

Western - Marche

Well, the great thing about dining at marche especially if u're with a close group of friends who are willing to spend and share and etc...



i ordered lobster bisque! one of my favourite soup flavour!



deanie ordered rosti with garlic sausage and when dar told him i like cheese sausage, he ordered another one!



hee.. i love marche's thick cheeeeese sausage!

n loh gong zai wanted to order fried udon.....



but becoz i said i dun feel like eating the udon, he went to order the crepe!



so how come there's still the pic of the udon? coz i ordered for him! lol...

den the grilled section... deanie wanted to order lamb chops... but he suddenly remember dat i dun take mutton... so he changed to order chicken leg...



in the end i ordered the lamb chops for this also! (pic not available coz it was placed farrrr away from me coz i dun eat mutton)

look at our feast!



dat was not all.. before we left, we were deciding if we wana have oysters!

we've discussed it before about this oyster thingy.. lol.. we realised that everytime when we go to places where its ala carte, we always like to order items like oysters which are not cheap and chargeable. but when we go for buffets, we always end up not touching these more expensive items like oysters! lol...

we wanted to skip oysters today but in the end we .....



all had one each! lol...

oysters are supposed to be an aphrodisiac and we always associate it with hornyness! lol...

Cafe - Cartel (Elyn's Birthday)

Lea, Diane and me celebrated Elyn's 21st birthday for her today. Her actual bday is actually the end of the month.

Everyone was digging into the free flow of bread and butter. Oh... no more discounts for cartel... UOB bank cards dun haf... OCBC bank cards dun haf.. DBS bank cards also dun haf... =(


n this was what we ordered...





the chicken chef salad is mine! n the 3 of them are sharing the big platter... though its not apparent if u do a comparison of the 2 pics, but the platter's plate is really much much bigger.. n see the 2 fingers there?? its elyn's fingers. she wanted to put it there so u all can scale and roughly estimate exactly how big the plate really is.


aside from free flow of bread, plain water is also free flow and self-serviced.


by the time we were all super full and couldnt take in any more food...

Western - Swensens

Dean, loh gong zai and me went for dinner at Swensens coz loh gong zai has a $60 voucher! kekkee.. means order all u can! =p



look at our feast!! n dat omelette was coz im a swensens member, so $2 off if we order any soup. hehe... shoooooo fullll!!