Prego Sunday Buffet Lunch

Hello! (:

It has been a while since I went to Prego so I decided to drop by for their Sunday Buffet Lunch today and it turned out to be one of the best decisions I've made this weekend! (:

I've always known Prego to have a laid-back and chillax-kind of atmosphere and today's lunch verified my impression of the restaurant. There was a couple of house singers doing covers of catchy pop songs (and they can do other songs upon request) with the guitar and that added to the friendly and comfortable atmosphere.

It was my first time having their buffet lunch and, from what I read online, it is marketed as 'semi-buffet', which is all well and good except that I had absolutely no idea what that meant =S Thankfully, upon arrival, one of the many busy waitresses managed to stop by our table and explained that we can help ourselves to the buffet counters and that we can order 2 'main dishes' at a time from this clipboard which has sheets of paper menu clipped onto them (see photo below). Happy that we finally knew how the system works, we opted for the non-alcoholic buffet lunch which costs $68++/pax and went ahead to indulge ourselves! (:

The range of food at the buffet counters was pretty amazing and what I liked was most of the dishes (at least those that we tried) were well-made and fresh-tasting (: Here are some photos of the dishes we had:

 Apart from the buffet counters, you can also order your mains from this menu:

There are about 40 items on this A3 size menu so there's LOADS to choose from! (: We only managed to try a few dishes because they were pretty filling! All the dishes that we ordered turned out great so we didn't regret ordering anything. The only gripe I have about this mains-ordering-system is the complete and utter waste of paper! You see, we are only allowed to order 1 item per person at a time so this means that we could only check off 2 boxes per sheet of paper per order. And if we want to order another two dishes, we'll have to use a brand new piece of paper! Isn't that ridiculous? =X I hope that they can revise this ordering system soon because I don't think it's green in any way. 

Alright shall ranting and show some photos of the mains that we tried today: 

Yup that's about it! (: Am looking forward to my next good meal next weekend! (: Have a great week ahead! (:

Ocean Restaurant by Cat Cora

Hello! (:

Today was fun because I finally went to SEA Aquarium with my good friend, Liang Cai, whose birthday is today! (: He loves looking at fishes and I haven't been wanting to visit the Aquarium so I thought why not celebrate his birthday at the Aquarium followed by dinner at Ocean Restaurant by Cat Cora? (:

We took our chance by visiting the aquarium only at 4pm, which turned out to be a fantastic idea cos there was hardly any queue! That made me feel that I wasted $30 paying for the 'express' tickets online because I was advised to buy those lest I had to queue for 3hours. But that didn't really bother me because the most important thing is that we managed to see a wide range of fishes and their underwater friends! (: I would highly recommend that you go to the Aquarium if you haven't been because it's wholly different from our old Underwater World in a good way (:

After taking a walk around the entire aquarium, we went to Ocean Restaurant by Cat Cora for an early dinner. There were two seatings (5.30pm or 8.30pm) to choose from and we chose the former because we didn't want to have dinner too late. I don't usually like to eat before 7pm but I didn't really have a choice for this so we went for an early dinner (:

Coincidentally, Resorts World Sentosa was having a RWS Food Affair so participating restaurants (Ocean Restaurant is one of them) came up with Special Set Menus for this event (:

Each five-course set costs $158++ and I think that the hefty price is well justified due to the nice and comfortable ambience as well as the good quality food (: I opted for the vegetarian set because there were two dishes in the normal menu that I didn't want to have but I also didn't want to have the 3rd course in the vegetarian set, which was goat cheese, so I told the waiter that I'd very much like to have the normal 3rd course, which is the salmon, scallop and lobster and thankfully the chef acquiesced to my request so I managed to have a very filling meal! (: Whee

Here are the photos taken with the iPhone at today's dinner (I forgot to bring my camera, erps):

Amuse Bouche  

-  First Course -

 Crab Salad

Chilled Corn Veloute & Avocado

Vegetarian Caviar

Cauliflower Custard

 -  Second Course -

Pan Fried Duck Liver

Sous Vide Apple, Lemon Compote & Apple Gel

Gouda Cheese

Pistachio Puree, Sour Cherry & Textures of Burundi Coffee Bean

 -  Third Course -

Salmon, Scallop & Lobster

Cauliflower Puree, Sautéed Garden Peas & Shellfish Emulsion

Vegetarian Option (not photographed): 

Roasted Beet Root Tartlet

Goat Cheese & Rucola

 -  Fourth Course -

 Kurobuta Pork Belly & Fried Octopus

Sauerkraut Puree, Cabbage Roll & Mustard

 ‘Garden’

Sautéed Baby Vegetable, Olive Oil Mashed Potato & Confit of Aubergine

 -  Fifth Course -

 Seasonal Berries

Strawberry Sorbet & Espuma

My two favourite courses were the scallop, salmon and lobster and the dessert (: Oh and I think the highlight of dinner was naming a huge fish Dennis Rodman! haha

Anyway, Happy Birthday to you, my friend! (: I hope you had a great evening out celebrating your birthday at SEA Aquarium and Ocean Restaurant! (: May you continue to be happier and more settled as you find yourself (:

Goodnight! (:

Nine Thirty

Hello! (:

In a blink of an eye, half of Sept hols have gone by =| I REALLY wish for time to slow down so that we can all enjoy the second half of Sept hols before the great dash to the finish line!

Having said that though, this week has been great so far (: I managed to sleep a lot more and I have been eating way more good food than usual so life is pretty much good and I shouldn't complain! (Still, a longer break wouldn't hurt anyone, would it!)

Matty and I went to Nine Thirty at Esplanade (previously Loola's) for lunch last week before school holidays began and that was when we discovered that Loola's has been renamed and 're-branded'. Instead of serving rather interesting/ fusion-type dishes, Nine Thirty now serves more western and local dishes to cater to the regular crowd.

Upon the waiter's recommendation, we ordered the Battered Fries ($9.90), which turned out to be much better than expected! I think the vinaigrette sauce complemented the battered fries superbly well and I enjoyed this dish! However, if you are prone to getting a sore throat after having too much fried and heaty food, I'd advised against ordering this because I felt quite greased-out after finishing this entire basket of fries!  

 The Wild Mushroom Soup ($9) was pretty normal and there is nothing to rave about. I thought that the single slice of mushroom atop the soup was quite pathetic =S They could have given more or taken it out completely! Heh.

The star all our savoury dishes was the Mutton Chop ($20), which Matty remarked was very good! I think the chef(s) at Nine Thirty (and previously Loola's) know how to do their meats because another friend raved about one of their Loola's meat dishes before too (: Sounds like it's a safe bet to order something meaty from their menu!

I couldn't resist but order their Hot Dark Chocolate with Truffle Chocolate ($8 per glass) and while their hot chocolate isn't as rich as Au Chocolat's, it was tasty enough on its own (: The truffle chocolate was definitely a nice touch and I ate it with much glee. 

To end off our meal, we had a delectable slice of stacked chocolate cake ($7.50), which was moist and rich and perfect (: You can get this at any Awfully Chocolate outlet and I'm thinking of doing just that the next time I pass by an outlet! It's fantastic (:

Alright that is all for now (: Will try to remember to take photos of the food that I'll be having cos sometimes we get too carried away talking and catching up that I don't have time to take photos! (:

Goodnight! (:

Wild Honey

Hello (:

The September hols are finally here! (: Even though most of us will be spending half our hols doing work, I think most of us still welcome this break because it gives us some freedom to catch up with rest, friends and life in general (:

On Thursday night after Teachers' Day Celebrations in school, we decided to try our luck by checking out if a particular limited edition item is still available so we made our way to town! On the way there, we were quite worried that we would be caught in a massive jam because we heard that a tree fell just after Heeren and we were heading to that area! =( I guess our lucky stars were shining on us that day because not only did we get to town safely, we also managed to get the limited edition item before dinner! (: Wheee! What a great way to kick start our Sept break! (:

Since it was a cold and wet day, we wanted to have ramen but alas the queue was monstrously long so we went to Wild Honey, which had NO queue, which is quite surprising because they used to be packed to the brim! I guess the bad press got around and that might have affected their image.. but we didn't receive bad service that night so I guess it's still alright to dine there (:

I had the Portobello Road and it was perfect because I could eat everything on the plate! Heheh (: I forgot to keep the receipt so I've no idea how much each item in this post cost but I think the main dishes are around $20 or so. This dish was surprisingly filling and I didn't feel like I needed to have a huge dessert after finishing this so I was quite pleased with this dish.

My dinner companion had the Tunisian, which was a warm hearty dish and perfect for someone who likes to control the amount of sauce one puts on his/ her bread. Personally, I don't like soggy bread so sometimes it's good to be able to control how 'wet' you want your bread to be.

We also shared the French Lemon Tart which tasted slightly odd to me because it didn't taste like other lemon tarts that I've tried before. I am guessing that they added cheese or something with a pretty strong taste so there was a very strong after taste, which I didn't quite like. Oh well, at least I now know not to have this the next time I visit them.

Alright that's all for now (: Will have to head back to school in a while to do my duty for an event but I am looking forward to supper with my other best friend after that! (:  Wheee~ Have a good weekend! (:

The House of Robert Timms (again!)

Hello (:

I'm starting to think that Robert Timms is the place to go whenever I need/ want/ crave for some fast and fuss-free cafe food. Granted that the food isn't spectacularly good, I still feel that it is a safe choice and it satisfies me sufficiently for me to want to keep going back whenever I feel that I need a cafe-food/ western fix.

Their pumpkin soup ($8.90) was thick and full-bodied and I thoroughly enjoyed it with the accompanying slices of crispy wholegrain bread which were lightly drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled salt grains.

Their spinach and mushroom salad ($14) was also a great meal in itself, especially if you love baby spinach like me! (: Thankfully my companion and I shared this dish or I wouldn't have been able to eat the rest of the dishes that we ordered! 

Their extremely hearty breakfast down under ($15.50) is extremely worth it if you are one with a big appetite and/ or famished. Just look at the portion size! Definitely good for sharing if you, like us, are interested in ordering food to share (:

Finally, we shared a lemon meringue tart ($7) and I had a cup of chai tea latte ($5.80) to end of the entire meal (:  I liked that the lemon wasn't too sour but I felt that it was a tad too sweet for my liking. The meringue was slightly thicker/ stickier than usual but it was alright (: Chai Tea Latte wasn't the strongest that I've had but it was good and warm for the soul (:

Would definitely be back again in the near future and I hope to try new dishes! Problem with me is that I tend to choose the same few dishes because I like them =| Oh well. We shall see (:

Two more days to the 'end' of the week.. I can't wait!

House at Dempsey

Hello (:

Am suffering from a severe case of distraction and lack of discipline so I am going to try to work it off by blogging about a nice dinner I had last week before I went to Vietnam.

We decided to head to House at Dempsey because they supposedly have a new menu and we thought that it might be worth a try (:

We started the night with a cup of cappucino ($6) and a small glass of whiskey ($18), which were relatively okay.

Their celeriac soup ($14) was absolutely divine! (: Loved the creamy and thick broth as well the one little scallop swimming in it. Would definitely opt to have this again any time! 

They took a long while to serve the rest of our dishes because they probably forgot about our dishes so in exchange for our patience, they gave us a free flat red bean bao (which was really not bad!). I have never tried their famous bao as I always thought that it is overpriced and it probably won't taste that good anyway so I'm quite happy that we managed to try this this way.

 I cannot remember when the first time I ate truffle fries but House's Truffle Fries ($12) was probably one of the first few that I've tried and fell in love with and still currently like. It somehow manages to refrain from being too oily and it remains crispy throughout the meal (: I would definitely have this any day too!

Oops pardon the very dark photo of the Lamb Rack ($30), which was, according to my dinner date, extremely well-cooked (: If you are game for some lamb, you might want to pop by House to get your fix as they seem to do quite a decent job at preparing this dish! (: I helped to eat the veggies and the mushrooms and they were alright (didn't quite fancy the sauce that came along with them though).

For desserts, we shared their famous warm chocolate toffee cake ($9.50), which is always a winner to me (: I like that the cake is moist and that the chocolate is just gooey enough to complement the cake (: Will consider ordering this cake for the next department birthday celebration (:

Alright that's all for now (: I hope that the next 3 days will be bearable! The kids are probably still recovering from Vietnam Trip and they are transiting to their real holiday mood so it might be tough to get them going but persevere we must! (: Have a great week ahead! (: