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.

07 Feb 2012 - Straits Cafe @ Hotel Rendezvous for Mom's Birthday

This post will be going without pictures. Nobody took any.

Took advantage of the Standard Chartered Bank cardholder birthday promotion, 3 diners for the price of 2. Tried to get 6 people, but the second brother wasn't free. So, they had 5 on that day.

Apparently, the renovation works at Hotel Rendezvous just got completed. The whole place looks brighter and more spacious than before.

Got shown their table, near the window, sofa seats with cushion for some lumbar support. So far so good.

Decided to start off with sashimi, you had to go to the counter and make a request. However, was disappointed to see a whole tray of sliced salmon. Didn't seem well-chilled either. Would have preferred the chef to slice from a slab. In any case, got served up 4 slices of neatly arranged salmon sashimi. The only available sashimi were salmon and octopus. Got some plump looking oysters from the same counter too, freshly shucked.

Next, went for the snow crabs, prawns and snails. Always have a soft spot for crustaceans. The 2 young waitresses seemed a little blur, so he had to go without the clarified butter for the crab. The sweet crabs were good on their own anyway, Mom and Dad also enjoyed it. Prawns were large and crunchy, and the snails were tender. There were no food labels, but those snails had a hard beak for you to pull and get the meat out. Someone help to name them?

On another occasion, when the littlest brother asked for a stirrer for his tea, the waitress brought him a soup spoon. When asked for a dessert spoon for the shot-glass dessert, the spoon she brought was again too large to even reach the dessert. But they were enthusiastic, so it didn't matter too much. Dad eventually went to fetch the correct spoon.

The older bunch started to get tired of the cold food, and went for the pipping hot cooked food instead. The littlest brother and him went for more sashimi and oysters. Maybe the rotated chef was in a bad mood, and the oysters he shucked were all mangled. The same chef served up a messy bundle of salmon, sure gave them a good time unwrapping the slices. Totally no pride in his work. Or he intended but failed at a salmon rose, perhaps?

Everyone enjoyed the durian pengat, something like durian smoothie. Many years ago, you had to retrieve it from the tub. You could get as many ice-cold scoops as you wanted in your bowl. On this day, these were served in shot-glasses. Would have liked it cooler, and found the portion a little too small. Coming from another point of view, it's a healthy initiative. You'll have to eat lesser at one go, and you'll probably be more conscious of the intake of such sinful stuff.

To sum up, the ambience and food were good, but service could be improved. Had a hard time deciding between Kiseki and Straits Cafe, but walked away with some disappointment this time round.

a month in lawton, oklahoma, united states

here comes a compilation of 1 month's worth of food. messy! are you ready for it?

dating a month back, he crossed the pacific towards his destination in around 36 hours. boarded 4 flights. Singapore to Tokyo for a stopover, Tokyo to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to Dallas, and finally, Dallas to Oklahoma City. not forgetting the near 2 hours truck-ride to his hotel in Lawton. imagine how tiring that was, and you'll probably forgive him for having only 1 decent picture of his inflight meal.

poached egg with cheese, hashbrowns, sausage and a cherry tomato. very yummy.
there were japanese selection available too, and he enjoyed soba the most. unfortunately, there are no pictures of the above said.


one fine day when they could eat out for lunch, they went for Burger King. their burgers are still very much large, and drinks in the US restaurants and eateries seem to be free flow. at least for where he was.
USD4.99 for this tax-free BK Big Fish meal. yummy.


on another not so fine night where they had to return to discuss some issues into the night, they decided to pamper themselves with a good meal of lobsters. the name says it all, Red Lobster.


as always, he goes for the ultimate value + yummy meal. ultimate feast, USD 22.99 (exclusive of taxes and tips)


garden salad for him, with yummy croutons. j was saying this was a separate charge of the meal, that nearly made the salad unpalatable.


j's order of steamed 1 1/4 pound lobster. lobster's really red huh. cost around USD 24.


here comes his ultimate feast, snow crab legs, scampi shrimp, some kind of breaded shrimp, lobster tail and mashed potato. crab legs and the lobster tail tasted a bit tough. enjoyed the texture of the mashed potato, where you could still bite chunks of potatoes in the mash, and also liked the garlic aroma of the scampi shrimp. jy, however, found it too salty and left it very much untouched afterwards.


close up of the scampi shrimp. butter, garlic, herb. mmm...


Pusan Korean buffet
they would drive by this road on their way to work, and opted for lunch on a day they were tight on time, since it was the nearest.
USD6.95 for lunch (excluding taxes and tips)


rice, comfort food for some of his colleagues. variety was quite limited, but it was a good meal, considering that it was buffet for a lesser price than some other fast food restaurants. the kimchi and the bulgogi were especially good.


Wok N Roll chinese express
one of the haunts for bargain eats. look at the mountain of fried rice, cost around USD 6 and can feed 2-3 mouths. the one on the right is the Wok-N-Roll Special Combo, cost around USD 6 too, and consists of shrimps, beef, chicken, pork, and they always ask for it to be whipped up extra spicy. there was one fella who ate it and starting sweating all over his face in 13 degrees celsius.


Hong Kong Buffet
all time favourite. lunch for USD6.99 and dinner for less than USD 10 (weekday prices).
wide spread of food, sushi, western, mongolian, chinese, salads, good quality creamy ice-cream, etc. they seem to have braised mussels for lunch, and for dinner, wow, snow crab legs, cheese baked mussels and oysters. super duper yummy.


first meal at HK Buffet was lunch. took some spring rolls, fried dumplings, cheese baked potato and some spicy baby crawfish.


gh's mountain of prawns. he never fails to take this mountain whenever they are there.


second helping, braised pork, mussels, sushi, fried chicken wing, boiled egg half and cheese baked potato again.


not forgetting the mongolian barbeque! grab your spread of meat, pork, chicken, beef, throw in some peppers, top with large amounts of garlic in oil and some chilli paste. then wait and watch the chef bbq you a yummy plate of food!


dinner time, cheese baked mussels, snow crab legs and honey pork ribs. super yummy. gh probably had 1 dozen of the mussels.


close up of the yummy mussels. fresh and succulent.


Golden Corral - serves western style buffet. cost around USD13 for dinner with free flow lemon soda.


mushrooms, thinking of them makes him drool while typing. they serve large chunks of pork ribs, what is shown is about a quarter, special request.


next up, Furr's Fresh Buffet. has the largest spread of salad of all other eateries they've been to. cost around USD7 for lunch

mix of salad


grilled fish on the left, you can see the grill lines. slightly bitter and smokey taste.
pork carving in the middle, laden with a good layer of fats. when he went for returns, all that were left was the lean portion.
some kind of taco-like wrap on the right.


canned dinners - on days when they work really late and no more restaurants are open. left, USD1, right, USD0.80. very salty, but saves money and keeps you filled.


Taco Bell - first time he has ever eaten this, even though he has it back home. got a USD6 taco black box, 2 crunchy tacos and 1 soft taco.

a close up of one of the crunchy taco


breakfast of bagel, egg slices and meat patties.