Pho Hoa [Closed]

After Searching for Pho a while, it was such coincidental that my friend suggested that we go back to our favourite Vietnamese Cuisine Place at Pho Hoa in Holland Village. I started eating Pho many years back and came to know of such cuisine. Having tasted Pho in Vietnam and Singapore, the taste that got my most votes over all the years would be Pho Hoa.

Pho Hoa

Interior still remain the same after all these years with happy faces painted at the side of the walls, featuring families as well as children dining.



I can never forget the taste of Goi Cuon (Summer Roll) from Pho Hoa. Till today, I still think that they served the best Summer Roll out of so many places I went.

Summer Roll - $7.95 (Pair) 

Shrimps, chicken, salad and rice vermicelli was well wrapped by the translucent moist rice paper. The hit of the dish is none other that the sweet peanut paste. That's an addiction.

Cross Section of Summer Roll

Squid Pancakes were on its promotion list and new on its menu.  Deeply fried to its tempting brown color with sesame seeds all clinging onto it, these 4 pieces of pancakes were great. The meat was bouncy and chewy. It reminds me of our Fish You Tiao. If you like Fish You Tiao, you won't mind having their squid pancakes.

Squid Pancake - $5.95

Some of the restaurants have the sweet basil leaves and beansprouts all placed on top of your bowl of pho but in Pho Hoa, they have a practise to keep it separated. This is good as it gives customer a choice a add-on according to their preference. Two kinds of chillis were also provided and personally, I'm hooked to the sweet chilli in a dull red color. The chilli padi that looks fiery hot is really spicy. However, they served us at best when we dabbed a tender slice of beef onto it.

Toppings

Come in two sizes, Regular or Large at a difference of $2 per bowl. Pho Chin Nac (Brisket Pho) is my all time favourite order from Pho Hoa. Beef slices were lean cut and tender, slightly cooked by the boiling broth to the perfect timing.

Brisket Pho - $12.95 (Regular)

Broth is light and hearty with yellow onions and spring onions input. Additional toppings like beansprouts, sweet basils leaves and lime can be added base on your preference of taste.

Tender Slices with toppings

If you are going for steak and meat balls, do try out their Pho Tai, Bo Vien. Comparing to the briskets, the steak is a little thicker but still having the good taste. As for their meat balls, its kind of off the shelves, quite ordinary.

Steak & Meat Ball - $12.95

Another addition into their new menu will be Beef Pho in the dry version. It is the opposite version of Steak & Meat Ball just that its in a dry version. This recommendation is not bad either.

Dry Beef Pho - $11.95

The sweet sauce with peanuts toppings, fried onions and spring onions made the dish special. Not forgetting the bowl of soup that comes in the set, its has a better infused taste of the beef.

Dry Beef Pho - $11.95

The closest Vietnamese Cuisine that I will recommend in the West is perhaps Pho Hoa which carries a healthier and natural flavoured soup. 

Rating:3.5 / 5

Phoa Hoa
Location: Holland Village, 18 Lorong Mambong Singapore 277678
Website

Buckaroo BBQ & Grill [Closed]

Buckaroo BBQ & Grill is a family style restaurant located somewhere near Bukit Panjang and they serve up a range of Western dishes since 13 years ago. For those who are unaware, they had previously moved out from Andrews Avenue premises in Sembawang.

Buckaroo BBQ & Grill Restaurant

The family owned business restaurant were designed with a homely feel, laid back with westernized theme.It felt like we were dining somewhere in outskirts of the states with Native American decorations like state flags, Aboriginal boomerang, car plates and even cowboy trinkets. Tables are adequately spaced and ideal for conversations.

Interior

Onion Rings were stunning whereby the presentation threw a surprise to us. These thick cut golden fried onion rings were hand-breaded, a great difference from those off the shelves. Furthermore, those rings were stacked high up vertically and served with Buckaroo's special mustard cocktail sauce. Yummy! The Onion Rings Come in Regular and Large Portion.

Onion Rings - $9.80 (Regular)

Buffalo Wings are not to be missed. If you love some tongue torching stuff, there are 10 level of spiciness all lined up for you. However level 1 to 3 is highly recommended by the restaurant with Level #1 known as "Combustion Wings", #2 "Volcano" & Level #3 "Insanity". We had half a dozen of it at the lowest level and was quite pleased with how it tasted. They were coated strongly with vinegar such that when I brought them nearer to my mouth / nose, I felt a sudden choke and needed to has a gasp of air. Nevertheless, I would say Buckaroo served huge tasty wings, juicy and delicious. Those wings were served with celery & carrot sticks.

Level 1 - Combustion Wings - $17.50 (Half Dozen)

Another recommendation by Buckaroo will be its BBQ Pork Ribs. BBQ items were served with spicy wedges and mixed with in house dressing on the salad greens.

Buck's BBQ Pork Ribs - $24.80 (Regular)

We got a regular portion to share between us and this portion were large enough for 2 pax. They were coated richly in the savourly BBQ sauce. The pet peeves about the dish is perhaps that it was not served totally hot and was a tad dry.

Close up

Exploring deeper into the restaurant, you will find a place with props like cowboy hats, skulls and guitar etc. With Selfie or Welfie getting common nowadays, feel free to dress yourselves up and have some fun after dinner.

Photographs Corner

The tent and decorations were kids friendly. Not only that, I find that its another instagram worthy corner.

Tent

Overall, service was impeccable and service staff were friendly. From the start when we were standing at their doors, the helpful guy approached us and showed us the way into the restaurant followed by a good recommendations of the signatures. He even took into consideration that we might be over ordering and suggested to take off some items off our menu. It's just too rare to find such level of service in Singapore nowadays.

Selfie Station

Since place was located at Community Guild Building, the family style restaurant is pretty quiet, away from the bustling malls, good for groups gathering. Parking space is rather limited. Other than that, I would recommended Buckaroo for sure to anyone who loves to have a close to authentic taste of Buffalo Wings.


Rating: 3.25 / 5

Buckaroo BBQ & Grill
Location: Khek Community Guild Building, 921 Upper Bukit Timah Singapore 678202
Website

No Signboard Seafood Restaurant

It all started with a pal of mine who has super cravings for salted egg yolk crabs and we brainstormed about a number of seafood restaurants to go.

No Signboard Seafood Restaurant

I have always heard of "No Signboard" ringing around me and never had the chance there. Throuout the years, they are reputable for their chilli crab as well as seafood. We headed to the main branch of No Signboard at Geylang .

Pond

As we were rather early, there were still ample of seats and no queues at all. We visited the place about 5 sharp on a weekend and that was before when buses of tourists came over.

The Entrance

Sides (Azar) was served together with green & red chillis, wet tissues too.

Appetizer - $3

Young coconuts were available as an beverage too. Opted for the bigger coconut at $7 rather than the smaller one which is of $1 difference. These coconuts were served in small metal bowls and fleash was yummy.

Coconut -$7 Each

The star of the night was served and everyone was anticipating in joy. Based on the menu, per KG of crab cost $70 and 1 crab was like slightly more than 1 kg. There was also a disclaimer on their menu mentioning that there was no guarantee about the firmness of the crustacean meat.

Salted Egg Yolk gravy was sparingly given. Light orange gravy which colors reminds me of pumpkin soup was lightly creamed. Salted Egg Yolk with Crab was my favourite among all the cooking styles, No Signboard's standard was not too bad just that the crab meat was not too firm in my opinion. Standard was average and definitely not the best we can find in the market.

Salted Egg Yolk Crab - $70 Per Kg

Black pepper deer meat was nothing extraordinary. Colors presentation was well enhanced with capsicums as well as shades of purple from the onions. Meat was kind of rubbery to me but one good point to note was that the peppery level was not too much for me to take.

Deer Meat - $20

The healthy goers (my friends) just could not do without greens from our meal. Kai Lan was stirred fried with garlic, not too heady smell and with the greens rather crunchy.

Stirred Fried Vegetables with Garlic - $8

We had another plates of greens, Potato Leaves with Sambal. It was ordinary as compared to any other Cze Char Stall.

Potato Leaves with Sambal - $8

Just like the Crustaceans, there were many cooking styles available for Prawns from Steaming in Wine to Cheese and yet we ended up with our all time favorite, cereal prawns. There were about 7 to  8 medium size prawns despite that we had ordered a smaller portion. Cereals were fragrant and crispily done up while the prawns were rather fresh to get its shells removed easily.

Cereal Prawn - $20

Another crab came in as the last dish. While we expected it to be hot & spicy as seen from its color, the taste of it did not bring justice to the dish's name. There was an overpowering of tomato taste which I relate it to the Sardine Canned Food. However, a good point in this dish is that the flesh was firmer than what we had in the Salted Egg Yolk Dish and sauce/gravy over here was more generous.

Chilli Crab - $70 / Kg

Worrying that the amount of gravy would go to waste, we order 8 golden Man Tou (aka buns) and soaked them into the pool of fiery red gravy. Surprisingly, these golden pillow soft buns were perfect for the sauce.It was cleverly made with consistent air pockets and every piece of the buns does not deviate much.

Bread / Buns - $2.50

Having such a reputable name, I was rather disappointed with the quality and standards of crabs. Throughout the observations, I felt that it was more of a tourist place and a Tourist must eat place. As such, I conclude that for the same price you could get better food at a lesser known place.

Rating: 3 / 5

No Signboard Seafood Restaurant
Location: 414 Geylang Road Singapore 389392

Chonsiam

Being an Asian, having seen Asian Food in a Western County brings comfort to me, especially when the weather is cold. Walking pass the streets while on our way back to the hotel, we spotted a menu plastered on the wall outside Chonsiam.

Chonsiam

The "Special" indicate on the menu was quite straight forward with reasonable pricing, thus we went into the eating place without too much thinking.

Streets

Interior was small with limited seats and narrow aisles. Being dressed extra in winter clothing, I had to be additional careful not to topple over other table's food while making my way in.

Chonsiam

This is perhaps the cheapest food I ever had during my trip in Sydney. The special promotion of a bowl of Boat Noodle only cost me at $4 AUD. Although the portion may not be big, ingredients were ample with diced chicken, fish cakes, meatballs, vegetables as well as noodles in black herbal broth. Beating the cold & wet weather outside, I just wouldn't mind to have such down to earth meal. One pet peeve about the cheapest bowl of noodle I had was that I was quite thirsty after having this.

Boat Noodle - $4 AUD

Finding food in Sydney isn't an issue just that perhaps the exchange rate is a killer during then and with a plate of fried rice from the streets shop at $11.90 AUD. In Chonsiam, the team was mainly Thais and with such, the authenticity of their dishes are more or less guaranteed. The plate of fried rice was simple, good enough to keep a stomach full on a cold day without going hungry.

Thai Fried Rice - $11.90 AUD

Rating: 3 / 5

Chonsiam
Location:  38 Campbell St, Haymarket NSW 2000, Australia

Chateraise

Chateraise is housed in the basement of Westgate Shopping Centre right inside Isetan and they are known for their sweets, pastry and desserts from Japan. I came to realise the existence of the shop when my girl friend raved about their pastries and desserts, telling me that the whole family likes their swiss rolls as well as cakes.

Chateraise

Recently, during a visit to my house, she caught hold of my stomach with "Double" Fantasy. It was then we start to believe that Chateraise was real good!

At Chateraise

As I was queuing up for my pastries & Cakes, I took a look into the chiller. They have assorted and varieties of cake to choose from. Some of the cakes on display were actually fake ones with the real ones kept in the chiller.

Varieties

With just a few glance, I would say these delicate little stuff can really blew my mind especially when I see the Happy Little Bear and Happy little Bunny. I just feel like adopting them, into my stomach. :)

Bring Me Home

A number tag will be given to you once orders are made. Thereafter, we will show this to the cashier and he/she will consolidate and ask for payment. The transaction process is sequential which i felt quite good about it.

Number Tag

Here's our buy! The pastry has individual packaging for handling.

My Buys

Double Fantasy has lived up to its name with 2 layers of cream inserted in the puff. It crust was velvety soft, texture goes very well with the cream.

Double Fantasy - $1.90

The first layer consists of fresh Hokkaido Cream while the second layer with egg custard cream. Yummy!

Double Kinds of Cream

The "Zebra" or mille crepe has 18 layers, soft and fluffy with fresh cream evenly spread in between them. It was yummy and came with a top layer of honey, a perfect go with the crepe.

Zebra - $4.50

Simply love the combination of the two light fluffy pastry shells that is fantastically soft with strawberry cream cheese sandwich in between.

Fuwari - $1.90

Mascapone cream cheese made in Hokkaido and home made strawberry jam made of Californian strawberries is being used here and its so yummy!

Strawberry & Cream Cheese

Out of its packaging

The Pandan Cream Roll was so adorable that I could not bear to eat it. The Swiss Roll was very soft, better than my expectation and only costs $1.90. Fresh cream had sandwiched in between the roll with a comforting taste without having the thought of being too sinful.

Panda Cream Roll - $1.90

The pancakes with Azuki Bean & Cream threw another surprise to me. They were pillow soft. At the bite, it gave a burst of refreshing and satisfying taste.

Azuki Bean & Cream Pancake - $1.90

The first time when I was at Chateraise, the Eclair was sold out but luckily this time round I manage to grab one. Eclair was about a 15cm ruler length size

Custard Cream Eclair - $1.90

 Yummy!

Custard Filling

A matcha cake made to impress with a layer of red beans and chinese chestnut, elegantly created with starring shades of colors in its layer.

Matcha Bombe Cake - $4.70

Sweetness was not too cloying and matcha cream was good enough.

A side view of Matcha Bombe Cake

Airy light and spongy soft cake was the plus points to this piece of legendary cake while the luscious fresh red strawberries were juicy, giving bonus points to its name.

Legendary Fresh Cream Cake - $5.10

As a hobby baker myself, I am amazed by the softness level from Chateraise. Though it may sound a tad expensive on the pastry but I would say buying that is money well spend as its quality and taste is good.

Rating: 4 / 5

Chateraise
Location: Westgate, 3 Gateway Drive #B2 (Isetan) Singapore 608532