Shiok D'Grill (Dover)

If you’re craving hearty Western food without burning a hole in your wallet, make your way to Dover Crescent Coffeeshop and check out Shiok D’Grill. Tucked away in this unassuming neighbourhood spot, Shiok D’Grill dishes out generous portions of crowd-pleasing Western fare,  from juicy chicken chops to juicy Burgers all at pocket-friendly prices that make it easy to satisfy those comfort food cravings any day of the week.

We decided to try their Shiok Pasta, which lets you choose between Aglio Olio or a Tomato-based sauce. We went with the Aglio Olio, pairing it with a slab of grilled salmon for a satisfying, fuss-free meal.

Grilled Salmon - $12.90

The salmon was well pan-fried, seasoned with black pepper and just the right amount of herbs to bring out its natural flavour. The Aglio Olio had a decent texture too, with the pasta holding a slight bite that made the whole dish enjoyable without feeling too heavy.

Close-up of Salmon

We also had the Grilled Chicken with Tomato-Based Pasta, a good option if you prefer your pasta saucy and tangy. The tomato sauce added a nice touch of sweetness and moisture that paired well with the tender grilled chicken.

Shiok Pasta, Grilled Chicken - $6.90

We especially loved the nicely grilled layer of chicken skin, which lent a slight crisp and extra flavour to each bite.

Grill Chicken

You can also upgrade the sides for just a dollar more, We swapped ours for Twister Fries and tater tots. The fries were drizzled with nacho cheese, which made them extra indulgent and so satisfying to munch on. We only wished they’d been a little more generous with the cheese, it was so good we were craving more with every bite!

Cheesy Fries - $6.50 + $1

Besides the pasta, we couldn’t resist ordering their 5-piece fried chicken. We loved the crispy layer, golden, fragrant, and surprisingly not too oily. Each piece was addictive and definitely hit the spot if you’re craving something crunchy and satisfying.

5 Pieces Chicken - $16.9

Shiok D'Grill (Dover)
Location: 5 Dover Cres, Singapore 130005

Uncle Louis Chicken Rice

If you are a fan of the XO Fish Noodles of this Dover Crescent Coffeeshop, I bet you are no stranger to the snaky queue up in front of Uncle Louis Chicken Rice Stall. In fact, this is the most popular stall in the coffee shop that demands a wait for half an hour. No doubt that they are always packed with such a crowd, but the stall owner remains polite and humble. I was there early and was first in the queue even before the stall opened for that day.

Stall of Uncle Louis

We ordered Roast Duck, Char Siew and Poached Chicken with Gizzard. The rice was fragrant and flavourful. The chicken was well executed and dipping them into the chilli was yummy.

3 Kinds of Meat

 The Char Siew has sweet and savoury notes with subtle smokiness from the BBQ. The pork was well marinated, resulting in a symphony of tastes that linger on the palate. This sweet blend of savoury and smoky char siew is a must-order!

Char Siew

We added an additional dollar for the gizzards. For the roast duck, we find that its quite ordinary even though it still tasted on the delicious side in the thin crispy skin.

Roast Duck

The soups are free and I'm pretty impressed with the taste as it tasted as though you are buying additional steamed soup. It was sweet tasting with pork and not diluted.

3 Meat and 1 Gizzard - $13

For the price that we are paying, its quite reasonable for the standard for food and portion.

For the next visit, I would like to order the Roast Chicken and Roast Pork if there is a chance.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Uncle Louis Chicken Rice
Location: 19A Dover Cres, Singapore 131019

You Fa Duck Rice Kway Chap

If you heard about and visited the popular Holland Village XO Fish Head Bee Hun Stall in Dover Crescent, you might have noticed this Braised Duck stall located right at the corner of the coffee shop next to the convenience store.

Kway Chap for 2 with Braised Duck

The innards were well-handled and braised. We have braised pork belly, skin, intestines, eggs, Tau Gua and topping the dish up with Braised Duck. 

Ingredients for our Kway

Braised Duck

We ordered the Braised Duck Rice Set that comes with peanuts, braised egg and Tau Gua as sides. The braised duck rice was good with its savoury gravy. 

Duck Rice Set - $4.50

The soup has hints of herbal taste which was to our liking and the braised duck was moderately tender.

Braised Duck

Overall, though Fa Braised Duck may be just a humble stall at that corner of the coffee shop, I would say that their standard of braised duck definitely tastes above average. 

Rating: 3.25 / 5

You Fa Braised Duck Kway Chap
Location: 19A Dover Cres, Singapore 131019

Na Na Homemade Curry

Na Na Homemade Curry is located at the same coffee shop as the popular Holland Village XO Fish Head Bee Hun. Our initial plan was to have the Braised Duck Rice but that was not opened for the day, thus we ended up having Na Na Homemade Curry instead.

Na Na Homemade Curry 

I opted for the Fish Meat Curry and added $0.70 for the Bread. The curry was on the spicy and sour side with Tau Pok and Lady's Finger added. This preparation is more towards the Assam Fish Style.

Fish Meat Curry 鱼肉咖喱 - $6

The Curry was thick as well as the fish. Though the sour style of this dish suppose to enhance its taste and gave us an appetizing treat, I find that the burn on my lips and stomach was deterring me to enjoy the dish.

Fish

The Chicken Curry portion was generous with its huge soft potato. We were not spared from the spiciness of this dish too. Pairing the Chicken Curry with our white rice for $0.50.

Chicken Curry 咖喱鸡 - $4.50

Though the portion was value for money, the level of spiciness was not to my liking as I prefer savoury types of curry without burning my lips. 

Rating: 3 / 5

Na Na Homemade Curry
Location: 19A Dover Cres, Singapore 131019

Pasta Fresca Da Salvatore

Pasta Fresca Da Salvatore is known for serving quality Italian food at affordable pricing. Having their own factory in Pandan Loop head office, their pastas, sauces and ingredients were freshly made daily. Having said that, they are also catering products to major F & B outlets besides producing them for their own use.

Following the culture in most Italian Restaurant, breads were served to the patrons while waiting for the courses to come. We were given a basket of herb infused bread initially.

Bread

Bread

 Slices of fresh beef tenderloin stacked onto the bed of rocket salad and topped with shaved parmesan and lemon dressing. The taste of raw red meat was inevitable and you can actually overcome it by having them with the parmesa or the rocket salad.

Carpaccio Di Manzo - $21.50

 Linguine Pasta was cooked to al dente texture lavished in crab meat with lobster pink sauce.

Linguine Polpa - $23.50

 For the Baked Classics, the homemade pasta sheets layered with Bolognese sauce, Mozzarella and Parmesan cheese baked with Bashamel sauce. Look at the the burnt area at its side, its totally inviting!

Classic Lasagna - $22.50

 A classic Italian cream pudding with amaretto liqueur and vanilla. Wobbly Panna Cotta was adorned with pure white fresh cream and some cherry sauce and zig-zag chocolate sauce. Panna Cotta was silky soft and not too sweet while the chocolate sauce gave a tad bitterness to the dessert.

Panna Cotta - $10.30

Thanks to my pal who had treated me a lovely meal for my birthday in April. Overall, i find that the ambiance was nice and service was polite. With drinks and the dishes, it cost us about $100 plus for 2 pax which I think that its a good to have once in a blue moon.

Rating: 3 / 5

Pasta Fresca Da Salvatore
Location: Rochester Mall, 39 Rochester Drive, #01-08 Singapore 138641 

Owl Cafe [Closed]

I still can remember how the aroma from the brewing Owl Coffee stirred me awake every morning when my parents never failed to have a cup of them for breakfast. I always relate "Owl" to their coffee until I discovered their cafe in Bouna Vista.

Owl Cafe

Dining Interior

Owl Cafe is the first straits Asian Cafe in Singapore. With various blends of authentic Straits Asian-inspired coffee and after 50 years of roasting and blending coffee in its name, having a a cup of coffee in their Cafe will just never go wrong.

Owl Cafe Menu

Besides just coffee, they are proud to serve their Straits Asian Food from snacks to main courses as well as desserts.

In Pursuit of the Perfect Cup of Coffee

 Fish Noodle (Yu Mian) was rather special to me as its not common in Singapore. Thickness of the noodles are larger than the thick bee hoon and very soft as I bite on it. These fish noodles were served in rich fish broth with seafood like prawns, fish, fishballs and crabstick. The broth is creamy in color and rather tasty.

 Seafood Fish Noodle - $7.80

Bawan Kepeiting Broth is one of the recommendations on the menu. The meat balls are a good mix of chicken and crab meat served in clear tasty chicken soup. You can pair this broth with steamed rice, glass noodle or macaroni at additional $1.

Bawan Kepeiting Broth - $5.80

Close Up on Bawan Kepeiting

Slices of duck with sauce was cradled by the crispy spring onion prata. Stuffing like cool juvenile cucumbers added had given additional refreshing and crunchy bites to the roll!

Crispy Duck Spring Onion Prata - $5.80

 Otah on the toast was not bad. The dish featured a traditional toast with tasty Otah spread with slightly burnt taste.

Otah Otah - $2.80

 Moving on to the desserts, we have traditional chendol made from shaved ice, coconut starch noodles and gula melaka. Instead of having chendol the usual style, syrup over shaved ice, they have it served the reverse way which makes having chendol dessert enjoyable.

Chendol - $3.80

Washing down our food with the Malaysian style Gula Melaka Teh had also make the dining experience different. Instead of having conventional sugar over our beverages, palm sugar syrup was used.

Gula Melaka Teh - $3.20

Gula Melaka Kopi - $3.20

Having been to a number of cafes in the same line as what Owl Cafe are selling, e.g. Old Town,  papparich, I find that Owl Cafe standards are better and the uniqueness of food served make them stands out on their own. Ambiance was relaxing and unpretentious, a perfect choice to keep yourselves away from the bustling weekends crowd. What's more if you want to be closer abit to the nature, they have wooden theme alfresco dining.  My trip was Owl Cafe was satisfying indeed.

Alfresco Dining

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Owl Cafe
Location: The Star Vista, 1 Vista Exchange Green #02-10/11 Singapore 138617

Holland Village XO Fish Head Bee Hun

It's so natural when we talked about the Famous Fish Head Bee Hun, we will automatically link ourselves with Holland Village's XO Fish Head Bee Hoon. I have been patronizing their stalls during school days when they were located in one of the Coffee Shops among the vicinity of the popular and crowded Holland Village but soon after its shift, I had gradually lost touch to the good food. Nevertheless, the thought of it still pack me with anxiety when I knew that we were going to have that for lunch.

19A Holland Village XO Fish Head Bee Hun

It's more economical to order a huge bowl of Fish Meat Bee Hun if you are dining in groups as it's more costly to order individually. Portion is generously with thick slices of fish meat added with cabbages to sweeten the broth taste.

XO Fish Meat Bee Hun - $15 (3 Pax Portion)

Chunks of big thick meat were awesomely fresh, covered up under the milky flavour XO broth. Have a good stir with the ladle and distribute into smaller bowls.

Another notable dishes of Holland Village XO Fish Head Bee Hun is its prawn paste chicken. Crisply fried to golden brown perfection, as it was served to our table, we managed to see the dish was still sizzling with blood oozing out from one of the drumsticks.

Prawn Paste Chicken - $8

 Have a squirt of lime juice over the crunchy crust of the chicken wing to enhance its taste. Yummy!

In conclusion, their XO broth was tasty but was lessing out on the insensitivity of its alcohol content. I would prefer the one in Chop Lian Hin located in Pandans. Afterall, I would say that the standard of food was above average and definitely worth a little "BO"  drinking down the XO broth which makes us sweat a little.

Rating: 4 /  5

Holland Village XO Fish Head Bee Hun
Location: 19A Dover Crescent #01-05,Singapore 131019

Porn's Sexy Thai Food

After knowing that the Mediacorp's well-loved artist, Pornsak, has a restaurant name Porn's, I had it added to my food-to-eat list. Porn's is conveniently located in Starvista which is about 5 minutes walk from the MRT station.

Porn's Sexy.Thai.Food

Porn's interior gave me a surprise. Instead of decorating the place with traditional Thai decors, its walls were spatted with nicely done graffiti, pack full of energy which makes the place young and vibrant.

Funky Graffiti Wall

 What I like best was porn's mascot, a sexy cartoon elephant's butt which gave a good illustration to its "Sexy.Thai.Food" business line.

Porn's Logo

Porn's plates and serviettes were all printed with its mascot.

Plates & Serviettes

Even the cover of its menu was written in a hippy manner.

Porn's Menu

We had their homemade Thai Longan Tea and Lemongrass Drink as our thirst quencher for a start. They were cooling with fine ice occupying half the glass with the not-so-sweet taste. However, I would prefer a intense flavour from both the Longan and Lemongrass as they tasted abit blend to me.

Cost: $3.90 and $4.50 respectively.

Stir-fried pork with garlic was a homely style dish for the night. It was prepared with sweet black gravy and the pieces of pork was tender which I felt was a little artificial when chewed.

Stirred Fried Pork with Garlic - $8.50

 This time round, we did not stick to our usual Thai Pineapple Fried Rice and instead we had its Thai Shrimp Paste Rice. This Thai classic fried rice was the chef recommendation. Flavoured with shrimp paste, ingredients like green mango, chill, shallots and shrimps were neatly placed around the rice.

Prawn Paste Fried Rice - $9.90

These de-boned chicken wings come in a basket of 3. Stuffed with generous fillings of chicken, japanese black fungus and vegetables. Having such stuffed Chicken Wings before, I would comment that theirs was nothing spectacular.

Stuffed Chicken Wings - $8.90

To sum up, we had spend a total of $42 for 2 pax including the taxes (Service and GST). The food there was standard fare for all Thai Restaurant, there is no one signature dishes that could really stand out. Over we find there were nothing really sexy about the restaurant. 

Rating: 3 / 5

Porn's 
Location: The Star Vista, 1 Vista Exchange Green #02-09, Singapore138617