Seng Kee Black Chicken Herbal Soup

Came here for dinner with sister and brother-in-law one evening. I was thinking parking would be a pain in the ass but it turns out there's parking available right across the road - but I wasn't driving so I didn't have to worry about it in any case :D

Despite the fact that this place is called Seng Kee Black Chicken Herbal Soup, most of the other dishes here are really good too. We were here for a normal dinner so ordered the more common home-style dishes.

The Steamed Promfret $28 was a decent size and quite fresh -


Ok, so you can't really see the size of the fish under all that stuff but it was a decent size :D All that stuff was kiam chye (salted vegetable), tau cheou (fermented soy bean) and chilli - might sound like an odd combination but it went brilliantly with the fish.

The Tofu with Chicken Floss $7 was also good -


The tofu was really soft and the chicken floss were a nice touch.

Something I loved when I was a kid was liver - yes, I was a weird kid :D. Used to eat it for dinner but haven't had it yonks! The Claypot Liver $9 came looking like this -


But I couldn't decide if it looks better all mixed up, like this -


So I put both photos up :) Yep, there's kidney in this too which I neatly avoided, but the liver was cooked to perfect doneness.

We also tried the La La $8 -


And Fried Long Beans $8 -


Which were both not bad.

Great food at very cheap prices, and ambience too - al fresco dining :D This place is always crowded, which speaks well of the quality of food. Come and try!!


Seng Kee Black Chicken Herbal Soup
467 Changi Road
Tel: 67464089
Operating Hours : 5 pm - 4 am

Lagnaa

We decided to be adventurous one day and venture into Little India on a Saturday night for dinner. Thank goodness for an open-air car park just a street away from the restaurant :D

The restaurant definitely stood out from its neighbours in the row of shophouses. The ground floor looks casual, the walls full of grafitti left behind by previous customers (mostly international bagpackers). But do take off your shoes and go upstairs to the resturant proper. As there's namecard says, it's bare foot dining here :)

There's a just a few tables upstairs, with no seats... sit on the floor! A bit uncomfortable especially for those of us with longer legs, but you get used to it after a while.

We started with the Vegetarian Pakoras $6 -


Sorry for the blurry photos, lighting wasn't that great. The pakoras were just ok, nothing to rave about.

I had a mixed reaction when the dishes we ordered turned up -


The dishes are, starting from the very green Palak Paneer $7.50, going anti-clockwise : Butter Chicken $8, Spicy Aubergines $8, Butter Fish $15 and Saffron Rice $8.

My first thought was - what a lovely way to present the dishes! Second thought - what small portions! But not surprising from the more atas (high class) Indian restaurants though, it tends to be small portions for pretty steep prices.

The food itself was pretty average... I don't really understand why people like Palak Paneer - it's green and the spinach is so mushed up that you can't even recognise it as spinach! I don't hate it, just don't understand why so many people like it and order it. The Butter Chicken and Butter Fish were not that bad, not quite spicy enough for my liking. The Saffron Rice was quite good though.

Of course we ordered naan to go with the food : Garlic Naan $2, Chilli Cheese Naan $5 -


As usual more naan than we could finish...

I liked the ambience of this place but the food was just mediocre. Just be prepared for some leg cramps from sitting on the floor :)


Lagnaa
6 Upper Dickson Road
S207466
Tel : 6296 1215

Es Teler 77 Juara

Sis and I were looking for a simple lunch at Far East Plaza and she suggested this place - her friend had brought her here before coz the chilli was supposed to be damn shiok :D

We each ordered a Fried Chicken Rice Set $5.50 -


The chicken was not really fried... when you say fried chicken, I kinda expect something with a crispy skin. More grilled I think, but still not bad - tender and tasty. And the chilli was as shiok as anticipated. Very spicy, a little bit salty... I ended up eating both mine and my sister's portions :D

We also tried the Sio May $2.50 coz I'm always a sucker for siew mai -


But this was yuck! Chewy with no meat in it, and with a satay like sauce. Very similar to those siew mai like things I see at streetside stalls in Hong Kong that are not really siew mai.

Definitely a no-frills place, service was quick but that was probably because we were there early and there wasn't a crowd. The food was ok (chilli was good) and other things on the menu might be worth a try - decent option for a quick, simple meal.


Es Teler 77 Juara
14 Scotts Road
#05-82 Far East Plaza
Tel: 6734 0656

Little Part 1 Café

K recently introduced me to this place and we've come here twice already :) I actually read about this place some time ago but could not figure out where to park so didn't bother coming. We ended up parking at Thomson Plaza and walking to the back door of the restaurant via the Thomson Plaza carpark exit.

The Mango Udon Roll $6.90 is an interesting vegetarian starter -


It's a rice paper roll with udon, mango, cucumber, avocado and mint leaves. The ingredients went together well to make a refreshing and light starter.

The Tofu Steak $5.90 wasn't what I expected -


The menu said oven baked tofu with wakame and assorted mushrooms so I wasn't quite expecting something with a sauce. It was still not too bad though...

The Salt & Pepper Calamari $8.90 was yummy!


It was perfectly fried - crispy and not overly chewy, served with a scrumptious homemade wasabi mayonnaise sauce.

The Little's Chicken Schnitzel $13.90 is their signature dish -


Huge serving! The chicken was coated with seasoned parmesan breadcrumbs and served with a clear wine sauce and mashed potatoes. I didn't like the wine sauce much so left that aside, but the mashed potatoes was really smooth, had bits of corn in it and were really good. A must try dish here!

The Bratwurst Brat $14.90 had a choice of sausages served with mashed potatoes -


Yet another huge serving! The sausages were tasty and served with the yummy mashed potatoes.

Little's Fish and Chips $12.90 was breaded dory served with chips -


I found it was a bit tasteless, which is weird as most reviews I've read said the seasoning is too strong.

K had the Four Cheese Fungi Crepe $12.90 -


which I took a bite of. Cheesy and chockful of mushrooms in a thin crepe - nice!

The Apple Crumble $7.90 with a scoop of gelato was really good -


The combination of a hot apple dessert and cold ice cream is just magic.

The food here is really good - huge portions at great prices. The chef obviously takes pride in every dish as you can see the care that goes into it. Mostly healthy too, with a range of vegetarian options. The place is a bit small so don't be surprised if you have to wait. The only thing that put me off before was the parking situation but now that I have a solution to that, I'll probably be back here a lot in the future :)


Little Part 1 Café
15 Jasmine Road
Adelphi Park Estate
Tel: 6451 7553
www.littlepart1cafe.com.sg

Fish Mart Sakuraya (Parkway Parade)

Came here for lunch one day and had a chance to try super fresh sashimi. There's just a few tables here as it's mostly a supermarket. Order the sashimi from the counter and it gets sliced and served to you.

We tried (clockwise) Salmon Sashimi $7.90, Sayori (Halfbeak) Sashimi $7.00 and Mekajiki (Swordfish) Sashimi $10.60 -


Everything was good! Never had sayori before, it was sliced really thinly like the kind served with yusheng. I'm mostly a salmon sashimi girl who eats other types of fish only if other people orders it :)

The Cucumber Salad $3.00 was good too. It had a light dressing and made me feel like I was eating something healthy.

Definitely worth eating here - the sashimi is fresh and very good value for money. Just have to come at the right time when its not so crowded, otherwise be prepared to wait for a bit.


Fish Mart Sakuraya (Parkway Parade)
80 Marine Parade Road
#B1-83D Parkway Parade
Tel: 6345 4714

Different Taste Cafe and Restaurant (Frankel Avenue)

One reason why I think I make a lousy food blogger (besides the fact that I'm so slow at updating this blog :P) - is that I'm not the kind to order lots of dishes at restaurants. The size of my stomach has shrunk considerably with age, and also so as not to have any wastage of food, I tend to just order enough food. Which makes me a lousy food blogger coz for you it means a review of a limited number of dishes for each restaurant...

So I normally jump at the chance to try out a place with a group of people where we can order a whole heap of dishes :D

We came here for dinner one evening, and ordered a whole lot of food for four people. Lost the receipt so no prices will be listed, but the prices are around the prices of other tze char places. Sorry!

One of the more famous dishes here is the Curry Fish Head -


It was not bad - fish was fleshy and fresh, lots of ingredients in the curry (I love ladies' fingers and pineapple in fish head curry) and it had the right amount of spicy and sour.

Another childhood favourite tze char dish of mine is Prawn Roll (Hae Zo) -


Nothing to rave about here, it was just ok.

The Sweet & Sour Pork Rib was similarly decent -


The Crispy Chicken in Thai Chilli Sauce was a dish recommended by the waiter -


which turned out to be reasonably good.

I normally don't order egg dishes at restaurants coz it just seems silly to pay such a premium for something as simple as egg, but I'm always happy when someone else orders it and I get to share in it too :D We ordered Egg Fu Yong - yay, egg!


And for a balanced meal, we had a token vegetable dish -


The food here was mediocrely average. Except for the food being served very quickly, service was otherwise pretty bad, and they don't serve free water. Strange that they are so crowded despite it being a weekday night. I guess this is a pretty good alternative for people who stay in the neighbourhood and are looking for tze char food nearby. But I wouldn't make a trip just to eat here.


Different Taste Cafe and Restaurant (Frankel Avenue)
111 Frankel Avenue
Frankel Estate
Tel: 6241 6518

Sapporo Ramen Bishamon (Great World City)

Looking for a quick lunch with my mum and this place had no queue so we decided to try it out.

Food came pretty fast after we ordered. I had the Special Miso Ramen $13.50 -


which was super salty and a wee bit too oily for my liking. Drank heaps of water to counter the extreme salt content.

Ambience was nice - we got a booth seat, but service is spotty (bill took forever to come). Not surprised they have a low rating on www.hungrygowhere.com.


Sapporo Ramen Bishamon (Great World City)
1 Kim Seng Promenade
#01-21B Great World City
Tel: 6235 2890