Pontian Wanton Noodles

Pontian Wanton Noodles should be quite known by now as it has a number of branches in the malls as well as hawker centres. Pontian Wanton Noodles left me a big impression many years back for their noodles were different from the rest of the noodle stalls. Why? Noodles that were take away from their stall are not easily expanded as compared to the rest and I have always enjoy this advantage.

Style of Wanon Noodles

I had visited their Graffiti cafe in Orchard and I'm so glad to see them in JEM. Likewise, the interior of their outlet in JEM is Graffiti themed scribbled with aplenty of messages on the wall. Quality of tables and chairs were a great resemblance of kindergarten schools settings with bright color paints.

Graffiti Interior

Self service is observed in the restaurant and with the help of the buzzer system, patrons will know when their food are ready and receive them from the collection point.

Buzzer

With 60 years of history serving springy, bouncy noodles as well as crispy fried wantons. I would say their product lives up to the name. With varies sauce available and even noodles with cheese (interesting selection).

Black Sauce

Its good that they have a good selection of sauce, even tomato sauce.

Chilli with Black Sauce

Fried Wantons were addictive but their wantons in soup that comes in the meal was addictive too. Smooth with good ratio of fillings and skin.

Wantons

Unable to resist temptations, we order a side of their fried wanton. Condiments like chilli and Mayonnise are all available from their side station.

Crispy Fried Watons

The set comes with Bur Bur Hitam (Black Glutinous Rice) as our choice of dessert. It was not too bad with coconut milk on top.

Bur Bur Hitam

Another dessert we had was red bean soup as they ran out of Barley Gingko. The red bean soup caught me by surprise as it was more towards a concentrated dessert than watery soup based dessert.

Red Bean

For more variety and set meal, it would be best to visit their graffiti cafe as the conventional stall in hawker center only carries the traditional food items which you may find in a wanton stall.

Rating: 3 / 5

Pontian Wanton Noodles
Location: Blk 130 Jurong Gateway Road Singapore 600130 

Hong Kong Roasted Meat & Noodle

Ever wonder where did the Hong Kong Roasted at Bukit Batok Community Centre go to? We came across some articles online mentioning the move of the stall to Bukit Batok Village Eating House after the big revamp in the community centre.

Bukit Batok Village Eating House

It was my first experience having meal from an industrial canteen at a height with views and find it rather interesting overlooking at the stacks of Public Housing as well as Multi Storey Carpark decks. Though canteen is at the highest level of the industrial, the spiral carpark has given me ample space in the turning point thus driving was made easy without being too taxing on the head - giddiness.

View from Canteen

Hong Kong Roasted is occupying two stall space in the canteen selling both noodle and rice. Most stalls are closed on a Sunday morning except this Roasted Meat Stall and the drinks stall. We were quite unsure initially if Hong Kong Roasted Meat will be opened as the whole industrial area was pretty quiet until we smell the roasted fragrance of Roasted meat lingering at the upper levels of the carpark.

Stall of Hong Kong Roasted Meat & Noodle

They were very generous with the braised Sauce & chilli sauce and place them in bowls.

Braised Sauce & Chilli 

The meat platter consists of 3 kind of meat, roasted duck, Char Siew and Roasted Meat. Roasted duck was glistening on the outside and was up to the mark. Yum yum!

Meat Platter with 2 Rice - $12

The roasted meat (Sio Bak) was roasted with a charred taste and skin crispy. When you bite on it, you can hear the crunch literally.

Roasted Meat

While Char Siew was on the lean side. However, the meat was not tough and surprisingly quite soft to chew.

Char Siew

Overall, it is glad to see Hong Kong Roasted Meat still around the vicinity. Roasted Meat Lovers, you may want to make a trip down to the industrial to have your fix.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Hong Kong Roasted Meat & Noodle
Location: 2 Bukit Batok St 24 Level 9 Canteen Singapore 659480

Woo Ricebox [Closed]

Bringing the Original Taiwanese Flavours to Singapore, we have Woo Ricebox located in Basement 1 of Jurong Point Shopping Mall. Woo Ricebox is one of Taiwan's oldest Chains Restaurant and if you dont know, Gong Cha is also housed under the same unit as Woo's too.

Woo Ricebox

Woo Ricebox Buzzer

Even though they are sharing the same shop space, orders are made separately at their respective cashier and each has their own kind of electronic buzzer.

Gong Cha

Using quality biodegradable wooden boxes, it is good in the sense that the rice will not turn out too soggy after some time. With 10 over types of rice boxes from Woo Rice box menu, featuring Taiwanese mouth watering braised pork chop to fried spicy drumsticks.

Biodegradable Wooden Box

Every Ricebox comes with seasonal vegetables, pickles and a braised egg. If you are craving for some Taiwanese snacks, Woo Ricebox also offers a variety of them like Fried Sweet Potato, Salt & Pepper popcorn chicken.

Complete your meal with Double Boiled Soup too.

Add caption

Let's give Railway Pork Chop Ricebox a like! Pork chop was evenly braised in its marinates and was absolutely tasty.

Railway Pork Chop Ricebox - $9.90

Woo's signature Rice Box comes with the standards like braised egg, vegetables, tau gua, slice of sausage and cut slices of lean meat.

Woo's Signature Rice Box - $7.90

Pairing with the meals, we had ordered Taro Milk Shake and Mango Smoothie.

Gong Cha

Taiwanese Cuisine is often known for their braised meat and one of their staples will be none other than the bowl of braised minced pork rice. Simple and straight forward meal, with 3 items combination like preserved vegetables, braised egg and minced meat on top of the fragrance and soft pearl grain rice. Enjoy the delicious non greasy Minced Pork Ricebox in its authentic Taiwanese Flavours.

Braised Minced Pork Ricebox - $6.80

The fragrance of the Spicy Drumstick was way too addictive. Portion is generous per se and its crispy exterior were awesome. Underneath its skin, when revealed, we get to taste the tenderness and hot meat.

Spicy Drumstick Ricebox - $8.90

To let customers enjoy the best, Woo's drumstick is fried upon order, therefore a 15 minutes of wait is definitely required.

Drumstick

Another item on the menu will be their Taiwan Roast Pork Ricebox, the fried Roast Pork is as addictive as the chicken drumstick, packed full of fragrance. They are sliced into pieces, thus more convenient to patrons who don't want to make their fingers oily, this will be a better choice. Other than the meat, other items in the ricebox are pretty standards.

Taiwan Roast Pork Ricebox - $7.90

For those who have been to Taiwan and had their Railway rice box, you will notice the authenticity of what Woo had offered from their Tau Gua to Sauteed Vegetables and even the taste of the braised pork if you have tried.

Tau Gua

Overall, Woo Ricebox is definitely my kind of choice when it comes to Taiwanese Cuisine. Without going to Taiwan, having them in Singapore is a good way to reminisce the times I was in Taiwan digging into these packed meals on their railway.

Delivery Service

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Woo Ricebox
Location: Jurong Point Shopping Centre, 1 Jurong West Central 2 #B1-60/61 Singapore 648886

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