Crystal Jade Steamboat @ Zhong Shan Mall

Crystal Jade Steamboat Restaurant @ Zhong Shan Mall

Recently, we have been quite addicted to steamboat. To our joy, we found that Crystal Jade had also joined in on the recent Steamboat craze! There is a Crystal Jade Steamboat Restaurant outlet at Zhong Shan Mall which is one of my favourite hideouts as the mall is very quiet and it is really easy to find a parking space. 

The steamboat here is in a set and ala-cart style. The price is quite reasonable, starting at around $28.90++ per set for two. Soup is inclusive.

There were also other side dishes if you preferred to try something else.

The comprehensive sauce section. There were so many sauces to choose from and best of all, the sauces were absolutely FOC!

Arrival of our food...

Instant noodles go really well with the Ma La Soup. The Mala soup here was more towards the "numb" side rather than spicy. The herbal soup was average.

The fried bean curd skin on the top left hand of the photo went very very well with the soup. We ordered 3 plates of this. They only had one selection for the fish which was carp. I really dislike the taste of carp..it is way too fishy for my liking. 4 of us could not finish this one small plate of fish. That alone can probably give you an idea about how fishy it was. We were glad that we did not order the carp fish set steamboat....Phew!!

 

At 10pm, they have a supper dim sum menu that you can order from. The restaurant is open till late, and it is a really good place to hang out at night if you feel like having supper.

Overall: The total bill was $178.65 for 4 pax which worked out to be around SGD 45 per pax. Even though the food was quite average, the service was good. The price ranges around the same as Hai Di Lao per pax. However, if I was to compare the two restaurants, I would definitely choose Hai Di Lao over Crystal Jade Steamboat. The only bad thing about eating at Hai Di Lao is that there is always such a long queue. Sigh...

Rating: 3.5/5

Crystal Jade Steamboat Restaurant

Zhong Shan Mall #01-18

Tel : 63390283

Jade @ The Fullerton Hotel

Jade @ The Fullerton Hotel

This was my first time having Dinner at Jade. Previously, I had been here before for their ala cart dim sum buffet which was quite good. If my memories serve me right :P

We ordered the set menu which was the easiest option as we were too lazy to think what to order.

The menu...We ordered Happiness Set, $88++ per pax. (Huat Huat)

Appetizer, this is not part of the set. The roast pork was good. The skin was very crispy, the meat was juicy without the gamely taste. The thing that make this dish special, is the mustard sauce that came with it. Different from the normal wasabi mustard sauce that usually come with the roast pork. The mustard sauce that Jade serve is slightly sweet and don't have the wasabi taste, I felt this type of mustard sauce goes better with the roast pork compare to the wasabi mustard.

Appetizer from the Set Menu. From the left, roast duck with Foie Gras Sauce, the duck was juicy but I don't taste any Foie Gras. Middle was the crispy see bass with honey glazed, this was good. The fish was fried till crispy but not oily. Mayonnaise Prawn coated with chicken floss, tasted like normal prawn.

Braised Bird Nest with egg white and truffle soup. This was the first time, I had bird nest with truffle which sound weird cooking together. Normally, we had bird nest as dessert. Bird nest which is very bland by itself, truffles which is very strong in taste really goes very well together. This soup is so much Eco-friendly and I think it taste much more better than the gluey shark fin soup. (Say No to Shark Fin)

Dang Gui Chicken, the Dang Gui taste was mild. I would prefer stronger taste of Dang Gui.

Homemade beancurd with minced pork sauce. We changed beef to pork. The beancurd was very silky and this is the first time I see green toufu.

Noodle with Lobster. I find this dish average as the lobster tasted blend. noodle was average as well.

Coconut ice cream dessert with strawberry and jelly. 

Overall : The food is above average and the price is quite reasonable. I would definitely go back again. There is discount 10% for UOB and HSBC card. UOB infinite card is entitled to 20% discount.

Groupon Deal - Baci Italian Cafe @112 Katong

Groupon - Baci Italian Cafe

Easy to make reservation? 

No reservation needed for this deal, you can just walk in.

How is the experience?

The day that I went was the last day of the Groupon Deal, I guessed alot of people went on the last day to claim the deal. As majority of the item on the menu was sold out or not available. The only choices we were left with is only pasta. Hope the owner can anticipate better on the food supply when they take part in Groupon.

I guess Pizza is their signature since it is on the cover page of the menu. Don't ask me how it taste...as only pasta is available when I was there.

Cappuccino ($5.50), we ordered an Ice Mocha ($6.50) as well, not in the pic.

Mixed Seafood Linguine ($13)

Chicken and Pancette Carbonara ($17.50)

 

Total Bill : $45.48, after Groupon $30 Voucher : Top up $15

Prior going down to the restaurant, I did a quick search on Hungry go where on this restaurant. The review was terrible on the food and service. This is also part of the reason why we dragged till the last day to claim the deal. ( Forgot to do a search when I bought this voucher)
I already expect the worse when I waited for the food. But surprisingly, the pasta was done quite decent. In fact, I think my seafood pasta was quite a steal  at $13. The coffee was also decent. But I do agree with the service part. The service staff was busy talking and mixing up order at the counter. Many customers was quite pissed with the order mixed up when we were there. But, they do not charge service charge...so I think we cannot complain about their service.

Any Hard Sell?
No.

Will I go back again?
Thou, the food is decent but I won't be going back again. There is too many delicious food in Katong, decent is just not enough to attract me back to the cafe again.

Address:
112 East Coast Road
#01-07
112 Katong

Groupon - Korean Bistro Sarang at Orchard Central

Groupon - Korean Bistro Sarang at Orchard Central

Groupon Again! Recently, I had been quite addicted to Groupon Voucher for restaurant. This time we tried Sarang Korean Bistro at Orchard Central.

Easy to make reservation? 

Yes, it was quite easy to make reservation, we made reservation when we were on our way down to the restaurant. Maybe because it was a weekday night. I would advise you to make reservation early for weekend night as the bistro is not very big. Ask for outdoor area.

How is the experience?
Outdoor area was beautifully set up like a garden. Indoor setup was boring. Although, "Outdoor" it is  not warm, the big ass fan on the ceiling cool the place.

Big Ass Fan..what a cool name for a fan..

View from our table...

Waiting for food....

Appetizer (Free) ...refill available, The lotus is my fave..

Lychee Soju ($19), this was very easy to drink...nice!

Army Stew ($32), the claypot was quite shallow. Soup was very limited. Taste was quite average.

Pork Belly ($22), the pork belly was bbq by the kitchen. The pork belly taste quite good together with the sauce provided.

Kimichi Pancake ($8), The pancake was not bad, they are quite generous with the seafood.

Total bill: $60.03 after $40 Groupon voucher. (including 2 rice at $2 each)

Any Hard Sell?
No.

Will I go back again?
Yes, there is 50% discount for American Platinum Card Members for 2 diners. Better than Groupon deal. I only knew there is 50% discount for Amex Plantinum Card holder when I am paying. I like the decor of this place and think it was quite a nice place to chill out.

Add:
Sarang - Modern Korean Dining
Orchard Centre #07-01

Pigsfly Kitchen & Bar

This year we celebrated Hazel's birthday on her actual day at PigsFly. Pigsfly Kitchen + Bar is a really cool concept with 6 different cuisines, American Gourmet Burgers, Pizzas, Seafood, Northern Indian, Japanese and traditional Thai favourites. And the Japanese stall, Kazoku was operated by our secondary school mate. We have seen many of our school mates patronizing his stall and have always wanted to try so finally because of Hazel's birthday we decided to pay him a visit.

We ordered mainly from his stall as a show of support and also because of the good comments he's been receiving.  I am here to offer a confirmation!

We ordered quite a number of items like beef steak, salmon sashimi, sword fish sashimi, cold soba, tamago sushi, scallop salad and California roll. Everyone agreed that the taste of the Japanese food was indeed pretty good and for the price, it is really value for money. I actually pretty much enjoyed the food so much that I'll be back.

So after dinner, the usual standard activity would be partying and to make the night more interesting, it's the halloween weekend at Zouk!

Master chef ZhongWei working hard at the back.



The birthday girl

The pizza and the salad was from the western stall, and only Maggie & Hazel fed on the pizza.

California Roll, mango slice substituted with more salmon - all thanks to the chef.

So Love





Prison break?

The corpse bride

Chinese ghost

Our kind of welcome drink

Hazel with her home baked cake by Maggie

Baker Lim

Do you want to play a game?

Xmen



PigsFly

1 Goldhill Plaza

#01-05

Singapore 308899

TEL: +65 6352 7484

Zouk

19 Jiak Kim St
6738 2988