Chin Sin Huan Eating House Tim Sum & Pau

Our trip from the West to Jalan Batu was made more fruitful after visiting this coffeeshop. Can you imagine one of our well known Pau is hidden under the blocks? Well, I'm not aware of such until my pal told me about it!

Chin Sin Huan Eating House Tim Sum & Pau

Apparently, the coffeeshop only sells local noodles like Laksa, Lor Mee and prawn noodle, and with Tanjong Rhu Pau occupying almost half of the space. Empty boxes were stuck high up and there was aplenty of paus in the wooden trays too. The perpetual queue had given us further affirmation that we "die die" have to buy them back even though we just had our lunch.

Box for the Paus

Box containing Pau

Paus in Tray

Honey BBQ Pork Buns was cute in golf ball sizing and probably one can finish them in one mouthful. The savoury pork buns tasted more of our "Rou Gan" in its juiciest form. The BBQ fragrant was really convincing and you won't regret getting more of them.

Char Siew Pau - $0.70

Revealing the savoury fillings

The meat buns on the other hand were equally yummy! Besides having them in the right ratios of skin and fillings, I would say the combination of its soft sweet skin and the juicy meat triggered the tastebud and woke up my enormous appetite somehow. I could stop at just 1 pau even after a heavy lunch!

Chicken Pau - $1.40

Other Dim Sum items like Fan Choy, Lou Mai Kai are available too but too bad when we wanted to buy their Siew Mai, it was sold out. I will be back for more!

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Chin Sin Huan Eating House Tim Sum & Pau
Location: 7 Jalan Batu #01-113 Singapore 431007

Empire State [Closed]

Being a West Person so much, it was by chance that I notice Empire State during one of the weekends in Causeway Point Mall. Though they have been in the industry for a while, it was the first time I have ever visit them. Knowing such, Causeway Point is the outlet for Empire State Currently.

Decorations and furnishings were loud with colors in its illustration which kind of reminds me of "New York New York", one of the past restaurants in Singapore.

Empire State

Menu covers American Cuisine from Burgers, Pasta to even Pizzas. We ordered one pasta and one from the Mains.

Menu

Since it was a weekend, its not surprising to see Singaporean spending quality time dining outside with families. Place was pretty pack and with perpetual queues during dinner timing.

Surroundings

A hefty portion of grilled chicken, sun dried tomatoes in Garlic Cream sauce was addictive. Moreover, Fettuccine was presented in not just the usual yellow but also green pasta. The savoury cream-riched pasta was good and stomach filling.

Grilled Chicken Fettuccine - $14.90

Served with fries and Mesclun salad, though chicken was herb roasted, the taste did not quite reveal the processes. Nevertheless, the outer skin of this Maple Glazed Chicken was perfectly done with the roast flavours, giving a light crisp.

Herb Roasted Maple Glazed Chicken - $13.90

The half chicken was succulent but if tastes were a bit stronger, it would be wonderful. Luckily, the brown sauce was placed into good use and complimented the white meat perfectly.

Thigh Meat

Hits & misses. Overall, food is generally average. For those who want to skip the sweet beverages and opting for plain water instead, do note that it is chargable at $0.30 per cup.


Rating: 3 / 5

Empire State
Location: Causeway Point, 1 Woodlands Square #02-10/K10 Singapore 738099
Website

Fire Grill Western Cuisine

Western Cuisine Stall over in Food Republic has been left untenanted for quite sometime and my attention was drawn away by the Fire Grill Western Cuisine during my last trip to 313 Food Republic. The stall is considered located at the prime location as anyone who took the escalator up to Food Republic most probably has to pass by the stall.

Fire Grill Cuisine

Its availability of 20 choices in the menu in the printed menu flashed at the wall of the stall was simply captivating. Though it may be featuring the common items like Chicken Chop, Fish & Chips, Pork Chop and pasta, their pictures were outstandingly featured with charred grill criss cross lines on the meat. How can we resist such temptations?

Menu

Pork Chop Aglio Olio was never dull with mixed Capsicums cubes complementing the strands of yellow spaghetti. I would prefer it to be a little less cook as the texture was abit fat and I felt that it was just a stage before the pasta turned soggy. Nevertheless, with enough olive oil used, the pasta did not stick together.

Pork Chop Pasta - $9.50

Never expect pork chop to be leaned. It has substantial amount of fats as well as meat & bones. It was done perfectly with its flesh attaching to its bone but worry not, with the sharp cutlery, only a little effort require to tear them off the bone, taken in consideration that the nature of pork is tough. And of course, the brown peppery sauce went well to the two slab of pork chop. Oinks!

Close up on Pork Chop

Rating: 3 / 5

Fire Grill Western Cuisine
Location: 313@Somerset, 313 Orchard Road Level 5 Singapore 238895 

Outback Steakhouse

Food industry in Singapore is getting more competitive nowadays as compared to before and having said that Outback Steakhouse is still one of the popular place among my clicks for steak. Besides having them at a more affordable pricing. let's check out our recent experience from Outback Steakhouse.

Environemnt

While waiting for the orders, starters were provided. Bread was heated up and came with some margarine for us to pair with.

Bread with compliments

The two plump cakes were highly raved by my pal. These cakes were packed of crabmeat, topped with basil and fresh tomatoes, also served with their special homemade remoulade sauce. Yummy!

Crab Cakes - $15.90

Outback Signature steaks are not to be missed over here. They are special and carved from USDA Choice Beef. We had the Outback Special, one of their signatures which was accentuated with the seasoned spices and seared to the perfect doneness we asked for. It comes with 6, 8, 10 oz starting at $28.90 with the difference of $2 for each weight. For each signature steak, you can choose two sides of your choice.

6oz Outback Special - $28.90

Done with their secret 17 kinds of seasoning blend, chargrilled over the open flame, this 10oz of USDA ribeye was mouth watering delicious! Juicy and savoury.

Ribeye - $39.90

Another excellent choice will be their Baby Back ribs.Succulent and juicy, fork tender with flesh falling off the bone easily with little effort. The rack was simply delicious and filled with smokey flavours. The level of grilling skills was good enough to to obtained such standard with the BBQ sauce. Ribs come in the choice of half and full rack, served with thick cut fries.

Baby Back Ribs (Half Rack) - $21.90

There was a one for one promotion going on with their fruit chillers and these chillers were made of fresh citrus juices and come in the choice of mango, raspberry or strawberry, finely blended with ice.

Fruit Chillers - $4.90

Surprisingly, service was much more than I have expected. Servers were prompt and attentive to our waving. On top of that, they will also go around asking customers if the food is ok and understand how much they can improve on. With service standards differs from the cafe and other eateries, I would think twice coming back again!

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Outback Steakhouse
Location: Millenia Walk, 9 Raffles Boulevard #01-114 Singapore 039596
Website

Tanjong Rhu Wanton Mee

The 3rd Consective days we are having Wanton Noodle but this time round we went all the way into Jalan Batu Hawker and check out another highly raved stall. There are two stalls selling Wanton Mee and we decided to join the queues of the stall nearer to the carpark.

Tanjong Rhu Wanton Noodle

Big and small versions differ in the amount of ingredients with the big bowl having more noodles, Char Siew and 1 more fried Wanton. Noodle was springy with lean Char Siew Meat, fried wantons, vegetables and also a bowl of wantons in soup.

Wanton Mee - $3.00 (Small)

Personally, I would prefer their fried wantons to the ones in the soup. It was not too oily but it had gave a good crispy bite with a soft marinated tasty filling which complement the smoky fried flavours of its skin.

Wanton Mee - $4 (Big)

Shrimp dumplings were already sold out during the time of visit, thus we had this additional bowl of 10 Wanton despite that our portion of Wanton Mee already come with a Wantons.

Wanton Soup - $3 (10 Pcs)

Wanton filling was generous with the wanton skin wrapping it well, forming a shape of the ball of minced meat. Taste was pretty usual, nothing out of the ordinary.

Wanton 

Overall, I felt quite disappointed to travel all the way there to have a bowl of ordinary wanton Mee. Hmmm...Where do you think its worth a try?

Rating: 3 / 5

Tanjong Rhu Wanton Mee
Location: Jalan Batu Market and Cooked Food Centre, Blk 4A Jalan Batu #01-35 Singapore 432004

Omurice.Onigiri.Oden

If you are looking for a quick meal in Bukit Panjang Plaza, head down to their basement and get swept away by the food heaven. Though it may be nothing unusual from the other malls in Singapore, sometihing that caught my attention was the shop that sells Omurice. It did really stand out from the rest as most of the shops were part of the restaurants chains which I find rather boring.

Omu.Onigiri.Oden

Onigiri and Chawanushi is also available at separate pricing if you want to top them up on top of your main courses.

Menu

A top up at $1.80 entitles you an onigiri and a canned drink. I had chosen a can of green tea and an Onigiri out of the 9 choices given. I had Tako Chigiri also known of Octopus Fishcake. It was served in a cup of warm water with the them dipped in. Tasted not bad and felt like having street snacks in Japan.

Tako Chigiri - $1.00

Having chosen the chicken katsu Omu Rice, there are also 2 choices of sauces to choose from. You can have the brown sauce or the teriyaki sauce. Short grains rice were soft and fluffy with hints of tomato taste and coated in light brown color.  Egg on the other hand was fluffy whereby zigzag patterns by tomato ketchup were used. Katsu was alright and decent. Overall, for a quite meal, I won't ask for further.

Chicken Katsu Omu Rice - $5.10

Since they are operating as a kiosk, there are limited seating available in the shop. Thus you can sit there for too long. Nevertheless, take away is available too.

Rating: 3 / 5

Omurice.Onigi.Oden
Location: Bukit Panjang Plaza, 1 Jelebu Road #01-36 s677743

Mooks Thai Bistro [Closed]

Home Team NS is one of the place I would visit in the neighbourhood for its supermarket. With eateries housed in the building, it gives another reason to visit them once awhile. Mooks Thai Bistro was what we had chanced upon during our last visit. It was relatively "new" to us as we never knew its presence there. Torn between Saizeriya and Mooks, I decided to go ahead with Mooks as I'm kind of craving for some Thai Cuisine.

Mooks Thai Bistro

Interior

Serviettes Holder

Grilled Chicken in Pandan Leaves (Gai Hor Bai Toey) was marinated as well as caramelized. Tender but still lacking from depth from its marinated taste as taste can only be found on the exterior layer and lacking of accentuation.

Grilled Chicken in Pandan Leaves - $8.90

There was nothing interesting about their fried rice (Khao Pad Talay) even though it was mentioned as authentic stirred fried with a mixture of fresh seafood. The dull and faint colours of rice has a resemblance of an ordinary plate of fried rice without any hints that it was from a Thai Cuisine.

Mooks Seafood Fried Rice - $9.50

Traditionally Stir-fried noodles with their special homemade sauce. Sweet with peanuts and garnishing, lessing out the chilli flakes. However, I was offered cut chilli padi to compliment it. Kway Teow Pad Thai has follow the usual Thai Recipe, sweet and addictive with the use of fish sauce.

Pad Thai - Kway Teow Pad Thai - $9.90

Washing down the dinner with the staples beverages in a Thai Cuisine will be their Lemon Grass. It can be ordered in cold or hot, up to one preference. Lemon Grass drink fits me as it has its fragrance and was not too overpowering. It was served with one lemon grass stalk too.

Lemon Grass - $3.50

Thai Iced Milk Tea was good but can be better with a better concentration of tea taste.

Thai Iced Milk Tea - $3.90

Overall, food pricing and taste is decent and average. However, the car park charges of the Home Team Clubhouse may be a deterrence of my visit if I'm just only there for a meal.


Rating: 3 / 5

Mooks Thai Bistro
Location: Home Team NS Clubhouse, 2 Bukit Batok West Ave 7 #01-09A&B Singapore 659003