The New Ting!

With so many tenants turning over at the stretch of shophouses along Hillview Rise, I notice that The New Ting has been there for quite sometime and we had yet to try out their food.

Shop Front of The New Ting!

Do not judge the restaurant via its exterior. In fact, the interior has a nice concept using Coca Cola decorations with board games table. The walls were plastered with red bricks wall paper which made the environment cozy and different from the usual places we went. 

The New Ting!'s Interior

The vibes are different here and feels quite retro.

The New Ting! Interior

While one of us has root beer float and the other has Fruit Tea. The fruit tea was refreshing with real fruits in the big cup.

Fruit Tea and Root Beer Float - $3.50 & $4.90

I was quite thankful to see that the Mushroom Soup is not the run of the mill type and instead it was something made from the scratch topped with a handful of croutons and drizzled with some cream. Texture of soup is there with some mushroom bits / chunks within.

Forest Mushroom Soup - $6.90

The burger looked simple but well executed with fries as side. It was served on a round stone plate with wooden board. The sesame bun was thick and fluffy and generous servings of 24 hours marinated pulled pork were soaked with the BBQ sauce, lettuce and grana padano cheese.

Pulled Pork Burger - $14.90

Quality grilled beef patty accompanied by sunny side up egg, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cheddar cheese and bacon with BBQ Sauce.

Mega Burger - $16.90

It was quite empty on a weekday evening and seems like a good place to chill or even a place to do some work. The service was friendly and frankly, I do not mind making a return trip for its quiet environment and over some simple western food like this. 

Rating: 3.25 / 5

The New Ting!
Location: HillV2, 4 Hillview Rise #01-11 Singapore 667979

Chic-A-Boo Fried Chicken [Closed]

Having passed by Chic-a-boo at HillV2 multiple times, I'm still quite skeptical about the taste and did not prioritize her in my "To Try" list. It was after hearing positive feedback from friends and colleagues about their pleasant experience then I had make some plans to visit them. Chic-a-Boo offers fresh tender chicken, set meals, bites and sides similar to the fast food joints we had in Singapore.

Chic-A-Boo

Environment is clean and spacious, with ample of seating around. They do not give me the typical fast food joint feel whereby advertisement of their food can be found everywhere in the restaurant. The place is suitable for families and large groups as they are equipped with round as well as long tables.

Environment

With self helping Kiosk near the entrance, this allow patrons to order their food and do their payment straight away.

Self Service Kiosk

However, if you still prefer ordering food with some human touch, you can proceed all the way into the restaurant and place your orders over the counter. Instead of being in the queue to wait for your order, they have a numbering system in place and will buzz off once its ready for collection.

Condiments like Tomato and Chilli sauces can be taken at the side of the counter.

Ordering Counter, collection Point and Station

Drinks that came with set meal

3 Piece Set Meal includes 3 pieces of chicken, 1 corn muffin, 1 drink and 2 sides of our choice. Corn muffin caught me by surprise, it wasn't the kind of biscuits served in Popeyes. It was warm, full of corn fragrant stuffed with corn kernels. Curly fries were rather standard and for onion rings, they were using those quality big cuts ones.

For the main attraction on the plate - fried chicken, there are 2 choices to choose from, Hot & Spicy or Crispy. Comparing to what we had KFC, Hot & Spicy will be KFC, Crispy edition whereas Crispy will be KFC's originals.

3 Piece Chicken Set - $9.50

The combination of 2 Piece Chicken Set is the same as the 3 Piece Meal just that there is 1 piece of chicken lesser.

2 Piece Chicken Set - $7.90

As compared to the Crispy version, Hot & Spicy elevates the urge in wanting a meal in Chic A Boo more. Despite being juicy and succulent which already win most of the fast food place hands down,  it has a little hot fiery kick in its golden batter crisp skin.

Chicky

TCO salad was rather interesting and I guessed that the abbreviation should refer to Tomato, Cucumber and Onions. It has a zingy dressing that refreshed the taste-buds after a those fried flavours.

TCO Salad

Coleslaw on the other hand was not too bad too. Refreshing and not too creamy.

Coleslaw

So what's the verdict? I'm on the same side as my pals who mentioned that their fried chicken was way better than KFC, with my trip down to Chic A Boo, I confirmed that there is no doubt about that. Using fresh tender chicken, there was no signs of frozen meat smell or taste which is actually my main concern on the chickens. Other than that, price of the meal is rather competitive too. Portions are big and you get to have two sides, really value for money!

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Chic-A-Boo Fried Chicken
Location: Hill V2, 4 Hillview Rise #02-12 Singapore 667979

Kinsa Sushi

Being a regular visitors of HillV2, Weekdays night there may seem quiet but when its nearing the weekends, you start to see some of the restaurants were pretty packed.

I'm rather surprise with a handful number of patrons waiting to queue at Kinsa Sushi as the place was full house. (It seems a good sign isn't it?)

Kinsa Sushi

Just because of the crowd, I could not get a better seat deeper into the Sushi place but I was sitting beside those glass panels near the entrances.

Ambiance was a classical Japanese eating place with wooden furnishing.

Environment

As soon as you enter the restaurant, you will never miss the Sushi Bar Counter which is operated by a sushi conveyor belt under an attractive lighting.

Sushi Bar Counter

Menu

Value for money option? I would recommend their Set Meal. I had chosen their Kinsa Zen Set A at $25.80 which consist of a trio of sushi and sashimi together with hot soba, chawanmushi as well as 2 slices of fruits.

Sashimi was rather fresh while chawanmushi was not too bad after all. I was rather surprise when i receive the soba in a bowl of hot soup with vegetables and their fish cake. The dish was straight forward and simple.

Kinsa Zen A Set - $25.80

Sushi

Sashimi Sushi & Tamago

Katsu Don came in two variation, the Pork or the beef and we had the "Buta" (Pork) version. Style was pretty much similar to a Oyako Don dish just that the meat was deep fried version. Eggs, mushroom and yellow onions were part of it. They had used too little gravy which result that half the bottom part of rice were too plain to be eaten. It would be good if the amount of meat can be increased too.

Katsu Don (Pork) - $12.80

Standard for the whole Ika (Squid) was acceptable. However we find that it was abit overdone with the dry surface. The dish as a whole is best not to be eaten alone like this, perhaps with some rice.

Surume Ika Sugata Yaki - $11.80

Overall, the service was not too pleasing, there were extreme long waits between dishes which is not the usual speed of a restaurant practice in Singapore. Food wise, in terms of taste, standards and quality there were nothing much impressive.

Rating: 3 / 5

Kinsa Sushi
Location: Hill V2, 4 Hillview Rise #02-02 Singapore 667979

BurgerUp [Closed]

BurgerUp is the first only Premium Chain created in Singapore and it stands for Quality Up, Freedom Up and Service Up.

Burger Up Classic

BurgerUp is relatively new in HillV2 mall and has a comfortable dining settings with wallpaper pasted on the walls, featuring red bricks which made made the environment a little more cozy and cafe like. Furnishing was rather simple with wide walkways.

Environment

Burger Up Classic

Yellow melts burger was smothered with trio of cheese, nachos, parmesan and cheddar cheese, serving together with succulent Grilled beef patty, lettuce, tomatoes and onions.

Yellow Melts Burger - $10.50

Looking almost similar to the former's combination. Bacon Butty consisted of grilled beef patty with Back bacon, egg, sliced cheese, lettuce tomatoes,onions laid with BBQ sauce on a 5" toasted sesame bun and served with your choice of sides like fries or coleslaw.

Bacon Butty Burger - $10.50

Bacon Butty Burger - $10.50

To make a meal, just top up $3 to the burger and enjoy additional drink and soup of the day.

Having tried making my own bowl of mushroom soup, I'm sure that BurgerUp's soup of the day is of quality version with bits of mushrooms giving the creamy soup an additional texture. Soup was fragrant which left us wanting for more.

Mushroom Soup

Having Burgers in Burger Up reminds me of Carls Junior. Portion and serving portion is rather identical but one big difference is that in terms of the beef patty, what we had in BurgerUp was better as it was moist and juicy. Utensils like plates, spoon, fork and knife used was all disposable even though they seemed to be stainless steel or ceramic.

Colesslaw

Service was friendly and polite. Besides serving burgers, they do serve fried chicken too. I have heard comments that they were better than KFC. It sounds like there will be another trip back here again.

Rating: 3.25 / 5

BurgerUp
Location: Hill V2, 4 Hillview Rise #01-11 Singapore 667979

Blue Garden Korean BBQ [Closed]

With the recent implementation of free shuttle bus service to and fro HillV2 from neighbouring residences, I have observed a increase in the headcounts of patrons.

We seen through their glass panels and was somehow drawn to the number of person in Blue Garden Korean BBQ and thought that it will be a crowd-pleaser. Since we have been thinking hard about what to have in HillV2 for dinner for hours, we headed into the restaurant and waited for them to attend to us.

We were guided to a table with Ipad ordering. However the interface was not that user friendly and requires to enter a table number which cannot be find anywhere on the table. It is better to get assistance before "checking out" the items ordered.

Ipad Ordering

Unlike that one located in Link Hotel, Blue Garden Korean BBQ in HillV2 does not offer Buffet style, it's more of ala carte. BBQ is operated by gas stove with a cylinder in it and there is an adjustable exhaust point above every table.

Dining Environment

Adjustable exhaust pipe

Ventilator / Exhaust

Chilled tea featuring popular artiste, Jun Ji-hyun was served as soon as we got our seats. Capacity of the bottle was rather little and each time can fill up to about 4 full cups which is a table of 4, thus we have to keep requesting for refills.

Beverage with Jun Ji -hyun

Like most korean dining places, they come with refillable sides like beansprouts, kimchi, fried vermicelli, potato salad, anchovies with peanuts etc.

Sides

Fried vermicelli was peppery and tasty which reminds me of some instant noodle. Its texture was quite rubbery though. Since it was refillable, you may want to control abit as this will fill up the stomach quickly.

Rice Vermicelli

Salad was filled with pickles, carrots and lettuce in a citrus sauce.

Salad

Out of all side dishes, I think the Korean Steamed Egg Casserole is the best. It came in a sizzling pot contained the wobbly moisture  sweet tasting egg. It quite disappointing as the range of sides was not as wide as expected.

Steam Egg

Army Stew was served on a portable gas stove over the fire. It has a lip-smackingly good kimchi base with various meats like SPAM, hotdogs, sausages, ramen noodles, vegetables, onions, mushrooms, rice cake etc.

Army Stew (Budae Jjigae) - $35

Army Stew with Noodles

One Serving

Sauce like this with cut yellow onions soaked in vinegar are great pairing for the barbecued meat.

Condiments

Sauce

Slices of pork belly came with mushroom, yellow onion and oyster mushroom.

Bacon

Marinated Beef (Beef Samgyeop) - $25

Initially they started assist us with the barbecuing but they were so busy and got caught up by other tables and by the time they come over to our table, food was either under overcook or under-cook. It seemed that there was a manpower shortage and its quite obvious that with just a few ladies, its not enough to handle the crowd at dinner time.

BBQ Pork Belly

We ended up barbequing our own food and none of them had approached us and ask if to take over. Instead, they continued clearing the tables when there was no more incoming queues. Did their priorities go wrong?

BBQ Meat

Meat above are best to be consumed together when wrapped in the vegetables with korean bean sauce, garlic and other sauce available.

Vegetables

Sauce & Garlic

One thing to note that even though there are air ventilators installed, we smelled like walking Korean BBQ when we are done with the meal.

Food was mediocre and on top of that service was below par. We had to wave frantically in order to get attention in topping up our teas. To make matter worst, we have to adopt the "Do It Yourself" method in a Korean restaurant by cooking the food and cutting them ourselves. Giving such service standards and food quality, it will be hard that my friend and I will make a return. Service Tax of 10% and 7% GST will be charged. The total bill for 3 person sums up to $124.76 including taxes.

Rating: 2.5 / 5  
Blue Garden Korean BBQ 
Location: Hill V2, 4 Hillview Rise #01-09 Singapore 667979