Kluang Rail Coffee

One of the recommended food places to visit in Kluang will be none other than this Kluang Rail Coffee Place that is situated just right beside the railway track. The place is apparently iconic as it is packed with alot of people when we arrived and we had to join the queue.

Kluang Rail Coffee

The Rail Coffee place was kind of inside a big cage with these old school style of wired enclosure.

Queuing

Old School Coin Operated Public Phone 

The place was packed but not chaotic. Turn over was quite fast as well. There were cats lying around, going under the tables too.

Dining Environment

The place was airy with ceiling and wall fans.There is a big black board stating their menu items and surrounding there are some media articles hanged up.

Airy

Even though the weather was hot, customers still do not mind dining at the external area as fans were installed to circulate the air.

External Seating

While waiting for our food, I can oversee the busy lives of the staff in the kitchen. Each of them were tasked with some orders and was trying to keep up with the crowd. Environment was really fast pace and they were 100% concentrating on their duties.

Kitchen 

Besides serving the dine in customers, there were many in the queue for taking away too.

Busy Kitchen

Looking Outside

The train frequency was not very frequency, those the noise of incoming train was minimal to us.

Klaung Station

KTM Train at Kluang Station

A good guideline about what to order will be "Look at other table". With this plain menu without some pictures, sometimes its tough for us to understand the meal in Malay words.

Detailed Menu

 Here comes the menu with graphics to aid and entice the diners.

Menu with illustration

We can do away the soft boil eggs from our traditional breakfast. Eggs used were white, different from the beige ones we had back home. Upon breaking the shell, we know that their Soft Boil Eggs were  perfectly done.

Soft Boil Eggs - RM 2

Milo Hot - RM 2.30

Kopi Cold - RM 2.50

The traditional appealing Bun Bakar was served warm with crispy toasted bun, a slice of butter was sandwiched in between with kaya spread over it. Though it may look thick from an overall, the buns were fluffy and easy flattened. By the way the bun is about my palm size and was cut into 3.

Bun Bakar - RM 1.70

Kaya & Butter Exposed

Some sides to try before the mains. Their curry puff was not too bad. Best of all, when you convert the currency to SGD... Wow, you get what i mean.

Karipap - RM 0.50 (1 Pc)

Curry Puff Fillings

Johor Laksa? Beats me. I know nothing about such dish before this trip. Laksa gravy was given sparingly and merely covering some parts of the noodle. Portion is not too big and the toppings were raw with red onions, bean sprouts, shredded cucumber and chopped long beans. On top of everything chili given was potent.

Johor Laksa - RM 5.50

We opted for the non spicy version. Despite being simple, this was fulfilling bowl of noodles for the tummy.  The Dry Law Xu Fen was topped with shredded meat, raw bean sprouts, fried onions, parsley and comes with a bowl of fishballs soup.

Dry Law Xu Fen - RM 4.90

The place is popular and seating are limited thus there will be some pressure while dining since there are people eyeing for seats in the queue. All in all, the food was decent and I do not mind sinking myself into such local culture again for the breakfast. The place was unique with its locality.


Kluang Rail Coffee
Location:  Kluang KTM Station, Kampung Masjid Lama, Kluang Town, 86000

Sunset Railway Cafe

Having visited so many times to the Clementi Arcade for Cakes and Ice Cream, I have never noticed Sunset Railway Cafe until one day it was suggested that we will be having our breakfast there.

They do local breakfast sets from Kopi O, Roti with Kaya to serving chicken Macaroni. Environment was nostalgic with some old school stuff around and it kind of feels homely.

Interior

We have the Soft Boiled Eggs as "Starters" before the main meal. The eggs were skilfully prepared for they were not too cook or uncook. Simple dish but grabbing its timing to get the correct texture of those eggs are rather tricky.

Soft Boiled Eggs - $2.10

One of the local favourites, Mee Siam was deliciously prepared in the mild spicy gravy topped with chives and fried shallots. The gravy was sour, tangy and appetising in its taste. Ingredients were quite straight forward with hard boiled egg and cut tau pok. Perhaps the only difference is that they have added some prawns.

Mee Siam - $6.50

Basmati rice was packed of coconut fragrance. The default Nasi Lemak came with fried peanuts anchovies, cucumber, rendang chicken and some crackers. Surprisingly the rendang chicken was deliciously good. We have added Otah to complete our meal.

Nasi Lemak - $7.80 added with Otah $1.20

They are pretty popular for the traditional peranakan dishes and having tasted its rendang chicken, it will be most possible that we will be back again for it.  Though the mains in the menu were rather limited, they are serving some homely cooked food with love. Service was friendly and it has a good ambiance if you want to hide away from the crowd.

Rating: 3 / 5

Sunset Railway Cafe 
Location: 41 Sunset Way Singapore 597071

Ruth Chris

Ruth Chris is known as one of the places for quality steak and going here had been in my mind for quite sometime as Marina Mandarin Hotel is a memorable place for us.

Ruth's Chris Steak House

Interior was posh, with wooden thick wall panels, thick carpets across the dining floor, a classy chandelier in the center. Tables were spread with white table cloth and with some leather chairs allocated to them. Most of all, the environment was quiet and definitely a good choice of place for a romantic date or even a business meeting.

Interior

The menu was classy in an old fashion style book.

Menu

Once order was made, we were served with the starters. Loaf was warmed and went pretty well with the butter.

Starters

Server offered the option to have our portion of Lobster Bisque separated into 2 since its for sharing.
I'm totally bought over by the creamy crustacean soup. It had a good balance of crustacean and sweet tangy savoury taste. I just hope to have more of it.

Lobster Bisque - $28

These Oscar Style are one of the Entree of Ruth's favourite selections and a real bang for the buck. Love its slight charred crispy crust and the flavourful crab cake with asparagus and Bearnaise sauce.

Oscar Style - $18

We will caught off guard about this little parcel until the server those us that we can squeeze it on the Oscar Style to enhance the taste. Its actually half a lemon wrapped within.

Lemon

Mains will always be accompanied by sides and we had ordered the recommended sides from the Vegetables Menu. They do have a varieties of potatoes side to choose from too.

Fire-Roasted Corn - $18

I like the Pan-Roasted Mushrooms that was flavored and juicy, furthermore they were cut into sizes just nice for bites.

Pan-Roasted Mushrooms - $20 

Ruth's Chris specialization in steak. They are served sizzling in butter on a warmed plate. As advise by the server, I had agreed to go for the medium done-ness instead of the medium well as the temperature of the plate do play apart on their finest custom-aged Midwestern beef. The petite Filet comes in 2 options, 6 ounce (170 grams) at $65 or 8 ounce (230 grams) at $80. Though it mentioned petite but very cut was tender and definitely attained the ideal done-ness that I had opted for. Yes, certaintly, they do what they preached ~ broil it exactly the way we like it at 980Degree C to lock in the corn-fed flavour.

Petite Filet - $65

USDA Prime Ribeye was outstandingly served at its best. The well marbled beef was tantalizing and juicily presented in its charred crisscross patterns drizzled with seasonings. The quality and cut was impressive.

Ribeye (340 grams) - $80

A little surprise for us, Ruth Chris Steakhouse had actually prepared a mini cheese cake on a plate with their warmest greetings. So sweet of them!

Mini Cheese Cake

Their creamy homemade cheesecake light and not cloying in taste, its also served with fresh berries.

What A Surprised!

We were contented with the quality of the meal and dining experience, the service rendered by the crews were professional from the moment we walked into the steakhouse. Not only that, servers were detailed, observant and quick to response to the servings. It's a memorable one indeed.

Rating: 4.5 / 5

Ruth's Chris Steak House Singapore

Location:  6 Raffles Blvd, 4th Level, Marina Mandarin Hotel, Singapore 039594

Website

Penguin's Kitchen

Looking for some authentic Thai Food without breaking the bank? Penguin's Kitchen might be just the place that you are looking for. The place is not hard to find if you know the famous fish head steamboat, Tian Wai Tian, at Upper Serangoon as its just located behind.

Interior

Refreshing drink for me and kind of beat the spice at a later part when spicy food arrived.

Thai Iced Lemon Grass Tea - $4

The so called healthy dish that many may turned to. The vegetable was pretty tasty with distinct "Wok-Hei" taste. The sauce that drenched the greens were savoury too. Crunchy and smelled good with fried onions topping.

Stir Fried Kai Lan

This was the first time we ever had a mixed mushroom clear tom yum soup rather than seafood, chicken or prawns as ingredients. The clear Tom Yum soup had its temperature maintain as it was served in a hot pot under the fire. Tasted sour and fiery even with us removing the chilli padi from the pot. Though it feels "shiok" but the spiciness gets intense as we drank more. Luckily we had ordered some non spicy food to munch on, balancing our taste buds.

Tom Yum Soup Clear (Mixed Mushrooms)  冬炎杂菇汤 - $10

The Thai Prawn Cakes were definitely worth mentioning here. Though price was abit on a high side, I guessed that's the quality we paid for. Besides serving piping hot, exterior was crispy. It was soft when we bite it down and dipping the plum sauce makes this bar bite tasted so perfect.

Thai Prawn Cakes - $10 (3 Pcs) 

All of us love the Thai Basil minced meat. Its a great dish to order especially for sharing and was marked as a recommendation in the menu. We had chosen pork over the other 3 selections like chicken, seafood and mixed mushrooms. Yes, this dish is best to go with a bowl of white rice.

Stir Fried Hot Basil (Pork) 九层塔猪肉碎 - $12

Crispy omelette was offered in onion, minced pork, minced chicken or prawns with each cost differently. It looked pretty interesting, serving in a wrap form and its not our usual kind of omelette that takes the circular size of the plate. Its soft and delectable.

Crispy Omelette (Onion) 洋葱炸蛋 - $8

Added the Papaya Salad with salted egg. It tasted somehow different from the ones we usually had with bigger shrimps included.

Papaya Salad (Som Tum Thai) added with Salted Egg 木瓜沙拉加咸蛋 - $10 

It was a definite spicy experience for us. Nevertheless, it had reminded us that the original food in Thailand do have such level of spiciness. Overall, there are both hits and misses from Penguin's Kitchen. If you love hot stuff like the true blue Thai people, you will probably find the food to your liking.

Rating: 3 / 5

Penguin's Kitchen

Location: 9 Opal Crescent, Singapore 328404

The Sushi Bar

We was moving about in Orchard and suddenly my friend suggested we should have Japanese food for dinner and we headed to The Sushi Bar.

There were some items at 20 % and some promotions running on in this Far East Plaza outlet. Soon as we arrived and made our orders, all tables were gradually filled up by customers.

Sake - $5 Each

Thick and fresh slices of Sword Fish and Salmon Sashimi is definitely irresistible. I bet that explained the crowd and the "Trip Advisor" label on its glass door. For those who like Chirashi, they do offer this dish too.

Mekajiki $7.90 & Salmon $5.90

Vinaigrette Seaweed and cucumber was appetizing.

Wakame Kyurisu - $5.90

Perhaps, this has the better taste out of all items ordered but it was not served warmed.

Soft Shell Crab Salmon Aburi - $17.90

Each stick has 3 pieces of bacon wrapped enoki skewers. Aesthetically, it looked good with vibrant colors and as for taste wise, it would be better without the generous input of peppercorns.

Enoki Bacon - $7.90 2 Sticks

We had Teriyaki Sauce over salt on these 2 sticks of chicken skewer. It was heavily coated with sauce making it quite salty, however we find that there was too much of a frozen chicken taste in it.

Tori Momo - $6.90 for 2 Sticks

Its quite interesting to know that there are 3 outlets of The Sushi Bar located at Ngee Ann City, Far East Plaza and Tampines, each with different menu. Overall quality of food seems average to me and service standard was kind of unexpected from a Japanese eatery. Servers gave a feeling that passion was lost and only follow orders systematically. It lacked the kind of human touch that will complete the entire dining experience.

Rating: 3 / 5

The Sushi bar
Location: Far East Plaza, 14 Scotts Rd, #04-28 Singapore 228213
Website