26 Feb 2012 - Birthday dinner at The Square, Furama Riverfront

Chanced upon the 1-for-1 promotion and managed to get a reservation. The regular price was $55++/pax, sounded like quite a spike from the previous pricing.


It was a rude start on arrival. The attendant at the counter produced a pissed mien, probably because their check-in interrupted her flipping of some pages. She showed them to their table anyway, seated by the window. Would have been a reasonable view, had it not been blocked by the conical roof of the lobby.

The Chinese waitresses had higher standard of service. One of them saw that they were eating crabs, and brought them some crab scissors, claw crackers and a bowl of water with lemon slices. Nice touch. They would also ask if plates could be cleared before picking them up.

As the crowd started to come in, manpower seemed to be reallocated. The new batch of attendants cleared plates from the table without asking, prompt service, but not very polite huh.

Let's get to the food...

Seafood counter first, as always.


First blood. Didn't like that the restaurant removed the claws away from the "arms". But the quality of the crab meat was much better than the one he had at Straits Cafe, Hotel Rendezvous (early February 2012). Prawns were ice cold and tasty. They noticed that the restaurant did not serve oysters on a weekend dinner this day.


They had Belgian mussels though, and these tasted sweet and more tender than the ones at Straits Cafe. Sashimi though laid out for self-service, was also well-cut and neatly arranged.


Various salads. The buns were too oily to his liking, but she would go on and have a few more later.


Chilli crabs didn't appeal to him initially, as he felt that mud-crab meat would not be as enjoyable. The restaurant shone again, not too sure how they did it, but the meat was sweet, totally unlike the mushy ones he had in recent. Prawns however, were mushy, so he preferred the cold prawns.


Lamb with mint sauce. Lots of fat to be cut out, but the meat was tender and with no hint of gaminess.


Fried kuay tiao (flat noodles), chicken and more fried buns...


From the roasted meat section, quite a mess. The chef was quite polite though, guess he had too much on his hands, time-slicing between cooking pasting, chopping up meat and probably some other stuff.


He liked the peach pudding best. But because it was very sweet, you'd probably be overwhelmed after having 2 of it.


Check out that strawberry throwing its weight on the thin slice of toffee cake.


Creme brulee, looks quite the mashed up affair, but he just couldn't stop eating.


Almost forgot, the restaurant had good ice cream. Especially liked the creamy durian, and tangy mango flavours.

Reflections in the window when night came.


Asked for the bill, and the Chinese waitress patiently spoke about the various promotions with different payment modes. Well-equipped. Service standards of such levels have been a scarcity.

It had to end on a sour note though. On their way out, they met the same attendant who showed them their table, and she was still producing sulk on her face.

18 Feb 2012 - Zhou's Kitchen high tea buffet

Wanted to sleep in this rainy day, but got nagged at to go out. For "fresh air".

Went to Zhou's Kitchen at Novena Square2 for their high tea buffet, $16.80++ per person. Had a refillable pot of pu'er tea for $2.40++ too.

Fried crab rolls - crispy, but insides tasted more doughy than crabby. Perhaps crab meat is too delicate to be done this way, reminded him of the "fiery balls of crab" at Joe's Crab Shack during his stay in Dallas in 2011.


Fried dory fish fillet done Thai-style. Many people like tender dory fish, and it was made better with the sweet and slightly spicy sauce.


Prawn salad has always been his favourite. Succulent prawns, sweet melons and nata de coco topped with mayonnaise, just can't go wrong with this.


Pan-fried turnip cake with Chinese sausage. This did not taste overtly oily, he liked that the sausage bits lent contrast to the soft cake. She felt that dried shrimps were not sufficiently used though.


Cold dish of Drunken Chicken in spicy garlic sauce. Notice that this was cut out like ham? No bones.


Century egg porridge for her. He had a few spoonfuls, and thought that the broth tasted a little out. She found nothing wrong though.


Had difficulty removing the shrimp dumpling to his mouth, the skin was just too sticky. Crystal Jade did a better rendition of this.


Braised "phoenix" claws...


Steamed pork dumplings in spicy sauce. Suspected that this was "guo tie" that was steamed instead of being pan-fried.


Pork ribs with black bean paste, with no black beans to be found. Meat was succulent.


These were the weirdest siew mai they had ever tasted. The orange topping of fish roe seem to have all burst, the dumpling was overwhelmed with mushroom flavour, and the overall texture was a bit dry and hard. The first time he did not enjoy siew mai.


Sour and spicy soup to regain some appetite.


Pan-fried dumpling (guo tie), with pork floss and salad dressing. Warm, crispy and tasty. Nice.
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Finally, desserts to signal the end of the show. Herbal jelly that she complained about not being bitter enough.


He liked the sweet and cool almond jelly with mixed fruit.

20 Nov 2011 - Dining on Harvest of the Sea at Spices Cafe

Read online about an interesting "Harvest of the Sea" buffet at Concorde Hotel, priced at $48++ per person for a weekend dinner. Coupled with 15% discount for some credit cards, the pull factor just got stronger.

Checked out the inclusive a la carte menu for crabs while waiting for the single serve of lobster halves. He would go on to eat 5 different styles of crabs, cold, chilli, black pepper, steamed and butter.


While the lobsters were taking their time, he drew first blood. The salmon sashimi was really delicious, probably of the better variety. The crab was probably mud crab, claw was good, but the torso piece he had was a little mushy. Nobody can guarantee a perfect crab though.


Next plate was of smooth and juicy oysters. They would have another round of plumper ones later on. Bit into some sand/shell bits, but hey, it's seafood alright.


For the sweet toothed. He would be too stuffed with crabs and miss the fondue.


Her platter of cold seafood. Prawns were fresh and had crunch.


Then came the order of butter crab. Those shreds were probably egg wisps. The dish was very tasty, and was still dripping with butter.


Steamed crab was done with Chinese wine and egg whites, he liked it that the meat was moist and flavorsome. Notice that they were served the torso, but it would be claw-fest later on.


The lobster halves arrived, spicy sambal for him and cheese for her. Spoke to the manager and found out that these were from Indonesia, probably spiny lobsters. They didn't do Maine or Boston lobsters. Nevertheless these were succulent and went well with their toppings and had them wanting for more. Unfortunately, these were single-serve, and would cost ~$29++ each for additional orders.


From eyes of the other half.


Flipped the cleaned out cheese lobster for a mugshot.


Beef rendang, soy chicken, stir fried clams and lamb. Turf after surf for her.


He continued with his seafood feast.


Another shot of the pastry spread, about to be attacked.


Shot of the seafood counter, sporting an intermittent blue glow from under the ice.


She returned with slightly healthier stuff from the salad and cold cut counter.


He too, felt that it was time for some salad... with maybe some salmon sashimi, maybe some chicken, and perhaps also some smoked duck...


Crab and scallop soup, she was starting to engage the brakes...


Or so he thought. She sprung a fruity surprise. Kiwi and strawberries were really sweet, he seldom got any that tasted this sweet from the regular supermarket.


Tried some cheese, and heaped on a few slices of freshly replenished braised sea cucumber that was still steaming. Sneaked in 2 pieces of ebi tempura on the way back to the seat.


Felt that it would have been a wasted trip not to have black pepper crab and chilli crab, so those were placed on the order.

Black pepper crab that warmed the stomach. This time round, they were given 2 or 3 nicely cracked claws, as compared to just 1 in the previous crab dishes. An incident occurred here when he was trying to twist the pincers apart. The swollen meat snapped towards him and dirtied his shirt a little, but his mind was on the claw on the floor. What a waste.


She continued with another round of dessert while he took his time to polish off the crabs.


Was trying to catch his breath from downing the fiery black pepper crabs when the chilli crabs arrived. It was all meaty pincers, probably 4 or 5 of them.


Rotated the serving dish to be sure. No assistance of any sort was rendered to him, and she was laughing at him while he struggled with the claws. The numbers nearly overwhelmed him, but it was he who prevailed in the end. OK, no more mud crabs for a long long time....