Sweet Monster

While everyone is still crazy about Bingsu, the korean shaved ice dessert topped with fruits, nuts, sweet syrup, my friend had recommended some sweet stuff to me in Orchard Road.

Sweet Monster

Ever thought of having popcorns together with soft serve ice cream? Now you can have it from Sweet Monster. There are a range of good serve ice cream with toppings like cookie, caramel and wafer to choose from but if you are keen on the new tryout, you can get their Monster popcorn with ice cream. I got myself a cup of ice cream coupled with mixed popcorns, consisting of Strawberry, milk, caramel and chocolate flavor.

Monster Cakes

Ice cream is made fresh daily and is handmade using milk that is HACCP certificated. Soft serve has a strong milk flavour which I like and was not too sweet even with those non-GMO popcorns added.

Monster Popcorns

I always think that having fries with soft serve was a crazy idea (what i used to do during childhood). I guess having popcorns with ice cream had just brought enjoyment of ice-cream to yet another level right now.

Mixed Monster Ice Cream - $6.80

Assorted Popcorns

Rating: 3 /5

Sweet Monster
Location: Plaza Singapura, 68 Orchard Road #B2-49 Singapore 238839
Website

Dheen's Fish & Chips

Having Fish & Chips in London is a must and it was already our 3rd day in London and we had yet to try any. Thus after our sightseeing at museums and Trafalgar square, we search nearby looking for some recommended English Fish & Chips called "London's Fish & Chips" but ended up in Dheen's. Apparently London's Fish & Chips was replaced by Dheen's.

Dheen's is a small yet welcoming place located in the bustling Bedford Street situated in the heart of Covent Garden next to the Strand.

Dheen's Fish & Chips

The 2 storey high restaurant pride themselves as the providing traditional Fish & Chips experience using quality fresh ingredients, all prepared to order. Besides Fish & Chips, they served an array of seafood that includes prawns and calamari.

Ordering Counter

 There are limited seating at the 1st level with the ordering counter and more seats are available at the upper level.

Upper Level

Environment is pleasant and lively with friendly customers service.

Dining Environment

We went ahead for haddock fish instead of cod fish. Food was served right to our table and the portion was good enough for 2 standard Asian size stomach. With the flaky and tender flesh beneath the golden perfect batter, the first was both crispy and comforting, simply irresistible.

Haddock & Chips - £11

While most additional sauce in European countries require payment, Dheen's tartar sauce was free flow. With lemon juice and tartar sauce, it gave a perfect marriage to the crispy platter without overpowering its taste.

 Haddock & Chips - £11

Though Dheen's may not be the top 10 must eat Fish & Chips in London for tourist, I find their food rather reasonable at its pricing and one thing for sure, they are definitely not a tourist trap.

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Dheen's Fish & Chips
Location: 46 Bedford St, London WC2E 9HA, United Kingdom
Website

The Raven

It was such a joy visiting Bath in United Kingdom and we were glad to visit The Raven at Bath as they were one of the top 10 recommendations to dine over there.

The Raven is traditionally owned and unlike most of the pubs in UK, they are not related to any brewery or business.

Drinks Menu on the wall, look around for Wifi Password

 If you are looking for some Ales and pies, they are specialized in that. They have 2 options of bar and in a smoke free environment, best still there isn't any loud music playing in the background.

Bar Counter

Walk up to the 2nd Storey and feel at home at their dining area that comes with plushy seats and even magazine for your readings.

Dining Interior

What we like best is their fantastic selection of choice of chips / mash and gravies. Ordering of pie is easy in 5 steps:

1) Pick your pie,
2) Choose mash or chips,
3) Choose the gravy
4) add on sides if any and lastly,
5) order at the bar.

Menu - Front & Back

Menu - Pies & Not Pies

Having my first mouthful of Raven Ale Pie, I would say that the feeling was great as the Pie was crusty in the exterior and densely packed with meat and vegetables.

Raven's Ale Pie - £9.20

The Ale Pie was specially made by their Pie Minister using their in house Raven Ale with fillings consist of West Country Beef, onion, carrots, Raven Ale, green peppercorns and thyme. The gravy that I had opted was Red Wine and Thyme.

Pie's Fillings

It's hard not to try anything on the menu made in house by the Raven, thus we had the Barlett's Beef & Sausages made using their own Raven Ale. The sausages were awesome and tasted different for from the usual ones. They were served with mashed potatoes and our choice of gravy was sage & onion which goes very well with the dish.

Bartlett's Beef & Raven Ale Sausages - £9.20

The sides comes along with the non-pie dishes and we chose the Honey Roast Vegetables to the homemade slaw. The vegetables was interesting and consist of parnips, carrots and squash slow roasted with honey, herbs and olive oil.

Honey Roast Vegetables

Do not worry about absence of sauce, in fact I'm quite surprised to find a variety of them on the condiments container placed on the table. Do help yourselves.

Do not worry about sauce availability!

Last but not least, if you do not mind drinking beer, do not leave the place without having a glass of their Ale. Their beer was good, soothing and not too dry, giving a perfect match to their savoury pies.

£

Here's an overview of The Raven on Video.

Rating: 4 / 5

Raven
Location: 7 Queen Street Bath BA1 1HE United Kingdom

Website

Food For Thought

4th Anniversary was celebrated "discreetly" at this corner of Singapore's oldest Museum's food for thought. This initiative by the guy was pretty new to me us as we never had dined in the Museum after the visiting hours where surrounding was pretty quiet that you could even hear the pin if it drops.

Food For Thought

Ice Rose Bandung & Ice Lemon Tea - $4.50 & $3

The soup of the day came with a thick cut butter brioche, crispy and totally a stomach filler.

Toast  - $2

However, it's the best pairing for the chunky mushroom soup of the day.

Soup of the Day - $8

While having seen the next table enjoying some sinful delights like these, we decide to join in. The chicken wings were deeply fried in its crispiness form and revealing its juicy pipping hot meat under the coat of batter. If you are game for some snacks, this is one of the better choices.

3 Fried Chicken Wings - $7

Grilled Barramundi with Basil Almond Peso was great and was also one of their chef's recommendation. I had enjoyed the top layer of crisp clinging onto the Barramundi Fillet with assorted stirred fried vegetables stacking up the fillet. The presentation from the colours were soothing and alluring.

Barramundi Fillet - $23

The baby back ribs were heavily coated in its honeyed Hoisin Braised Sauce, paired with salt pepper and cherry tomato salad, yummy!

Baby Back Ribs - $25

Needless to say, the ribs were well whipped from the kitchen and every piece of ribs featured the tenderness and juiciness giving the need for a continuous bite.

Ribs

Ambiance at night in the corner was perfect for a night out if you want to enjoy your couple time. However, I find that the service crews were overly attentive to our movements and I was quite uncomfortable with someone excessively staring at our plates while we were dining. However, in a good sense, our plates were quickly cleared away by the individuating attention the assist had provided.

Rating: 3 / 5

Food For Thought
Location: National Museum of Singapore, 93 Stamford Road #01-04/05 Singapore 178897

Burger & Lobster

Serving just Burger & Lobster as suggested by its business name is may be very straight forward but this simple formula has been a hit in London where you can see people queuing around even though the weather was cold. It was such popular that even our local Dee Jays mentioned that it was one of the stop to visit when you are in London.

Burger & Lobster - London, Mayfair

We visited Burger & Lobster quite early and were readily prepared to wait in the cold after hearing so much raves online about them. Luckily, we were the first few on queue and there was space in the waiting area where we get some warmth from the heater while waiting for customers to finished their meal from the jammed pack eating place.

Interior

The environment was fun and lively with friendly servers around. They will take your name down in the queue and call for you when your table is ready. Not only that, their service is quick and prompt.

Recommendations

Concept is rather simple with only 3 items on the food menu, either burgers, lobster or lobster roll.

Dining Bib

Condiments and Wipes

The whole lobster weighed 1.5lb served with the moreish chips and salad. It can be served steamed, grilled or both. We are not talking about skinny meatless lobster here and instead they were all fresh, plump and juicy, welled cook, totally worth the wait. They are best eaten with the given lemon and butter garlic sauce.

1 Lobster - 20 GBP

Lobster

Half side of a lobster

With all mains served with chips and salad, the lobster roll dish made no difference except for the this starring toasted brioche bun that cradled he cool lobster that was dressed lightly in Japanese mayonnaise and served warm.

1 Lobster Roll - 20 GBP

Zooming Into the Roll

Washing down the dinner, we shared over a glass of beer, Asahi and also 2 cups of tap water (Free of Charge). In case you were thinking why Japanese Beer in Europe, I guess the man who has ordered has just touched down missing Asia already. :)

1 Asahi - 3.80 GBP

Tap Water - FOC

In fact in the area of Mayfair and London's living standard, it is unlikely to have seen such a well-priced meal. You would probably get half a lobster or not even half at such a rate that we are paying. Burger & Lobster takes no reservations, just walk in and enjoy the atmosphere. Do note that there are a number of BUrger & Lobster at parts of London too.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Burger & Lobster
Location: 29 Clarges Street Mayfair, London W1J 7EF
Operating Hours: Mon - Sat 12pm - 10.30pm
                              Sun 12pm - 5.30pm
Nearest Station: Green Park

Website

Stirling

A recent rave about Thai Milk Tea infused waffles had lured me to Stirling. Unfortunately, I was way too early for their kaffles as Kaffles is only available on Saturdays, 6pm - 1pm. By the way, it was not a total disappointment as they do also offer Churros on a weekday night.

Stirling

Stirling is located along the stretch of shop-houses at Cheong Chin Nam Road, opposite Beauty World Centre.

Table

Interior was modernly designed with wine racks hanging from the ceiling. Tone of the in the indoor dining area was cozy and comfortable with purple plush chairs to the tables.

Interior

Menu

With Churros at Holland Village closed down, it was hard to see such snacks again in my vicinity. Churros serving comes in 4 or 7 at $6 and $8 respectively. Every serving of Churros is accompanied by chocolate drizzle. I was rather surprised by how it was served when I was presented with a folded box made of grease paper containing the 7 sticks of Churros but I guess this has been the common practice for Churros Factory.

7 Churros - $8

Churros was great with thick and with creamy chocolate sauce coated tasted coupled with hints of cinnamon powder, also sugar dusted yet not overpowering the taste as an overall. These deep fried dough stick were delightfully crunchy and chewy.

Churros

In their "# All About Charcoal" Section in their menu, we ordered their Ultimate Grilled Chicken as well as their Sirloin Steak Burger from Stirling's recommendation. It's kind of rare to chance upon restaurant serving charcoal prepared food and the thought of it made us happy.

Burger and fries made a meal. Simple and sweet. 

With Charcoal grilled Sirloin Steak prepared to medium well done, coupled with romaine lettuce, roma tomatoes with Jack Daniels infused shitake mushrooms, the sight of it was simply mouth-watering and I could not resist to place my fork on it. What I like about the burger was that Steak was used here instead of meat patty, with such, you can really feel the difference here.

Jack's Daniels Infused Shitake Mushrooms

Paprika fries was a letdown on the plate with its dry texture and hard bites. What had gone wrong?

Stirling Sirloin Burger - $19

Ultimate Grilled Chicken made up of chicken thigh, the same paprika fries as the former dish and mixed greens with vinaigrette.

Ultimate Grilled Chicken - $16

Charcoal grilled chicken thigh meat was beautifully done smothered with a good coat of tomato sauce and herbs. Meat was tender and you can even smell the trace of charcoal flavored taste throughout the munch. Not only that, I do like the diced capsicums which went well along with the thick savoury sauce over here.

Grilled Chicken Thigh

Tiramisu did not score well and was not within the expectation. It was served in a Martini glass with soaked ladyfinger / sponge finger surrounded by the mixture of Mascarpone cheese and egg whites. No doubt that it was soaked in Espresso, it was only half soaked, the aromatic beverage did not permeates into the sponge and did not have a coffee infused flavour. Skipping of alcohol in the dessert is fine for me but the surrounding cheese were simply harder than pudding and totally wipe off my kind soft and melts in your mouth Tiramisu.

Tantalising Tiramisu - $8

Hits and misses, the charcoal grilling food served was really unique to their own and it's well worth the experience even though quite an amount of time was required for the wait. For those who are making payment by credit card, do note that Stirling accepts NETS and Cash only.

I will be back again soon but for their Kaffles, STAY TUNE!

Rating: 3 / 5

Stirling
Location: 15 Cheong Chin Nam Road Singapore 599739