Noordzee Mer Du Nord

Before it even reaches 5pm, Noordzee Mer du Nord was seen surrounded by people waiting for their seafood. Noordzee Mer Du Nord was one of the hit spot recommended online where one can enjoy some wine and seafood over at the counter or even with a dine in session. We made a mistake by returning back the store after a walk round the vicinity as many of the seafood were sold out when we were back on that rainy day.

Mer Du Nord

The entire place was an eye opener with open concept from storage of seafood to cooking them on the spot over the counters. What I truly enjoy was the entire process where the preparation of food came close to my eyes, just right in front of me. Ordering process is rather straight forward, you order and paid on spot, thereafter when your food is ready, your name will be called.

Open Kitchen

I have no intention to consume any "unusual" sea creature but that dish seemed to be one of the last few items for sale and I had no choice. When asked what was that, they explained as "Sea Snails". I'm not a snail person and you should know this bowl of seafood soup just would not entice me much. However some hot soupy stuff would warm our body under the cold and rainy weather. The snails were pretty yummy surprisingly but the soup was overly salty.

Escagot

With herbs and spices enhancing the sweet pan seared scallops and dipping them onto the sweet mayonnaise, it made this simple meal so perfect. Texture was perfect with some parts of it charred and was easy on the jaws.

Pan Seared Scallops

Croquettes were deep fried and took longer time to served than the rest. The golden brown exterior texture accompanied by the leafy greens, tomato and lemon wedge had simply bought my appetite.

Seafood Croquettes

Biting down the croquettes carefully and revealing its marshy seafood fillings, I would say they were quality stuff. Seafood taste might be a little strong for some here and you can squeeze some lemon juice over to reduce the seafood smell.

Cross Section of Croquettes

This is a perfect spot in Brussel where you can enjoy quality and fresh street seafood cook right on the spot based on order. The different experience in leaning against the counter or even one of the high tables and consume the seafood while standing up was really not a usual practice we have in Asia. If ever I'm back again, I will visit this place for sure.

Mer Du Nord Noordzee
Location: Rue Sainte-Catherine 45, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium

European Hotel

We all know that the Standard of Living in London is quite high and not mentioning the hotel too. It was nearing Christmas Season and most of the hotels were either fully booked or those left overs were very expensive a night. We booked European Hotel through the portal for our 4 days stay in London.

European Hotel

Hotel is conveniently located within 3 minutes of walk near King's Cross Station. Places of interest like Bristish Museum and Library are also walkable within 15 minutes. Room is equipped with free Wi-Fi, an en suite bathroom with shower. Wifi password is generated and use base on device, thus if you have 3 devices, you may ask them to give you 3 different passwords and each of them do have a validity.

Out of the Hotel Window

There are no elevators to other room and we had to carry our luggages all the way up to the narrow wooden stairways.

Narrow Stairways

Corridors

Looking out of the Windows into the street

Room is pretty compact and was quite different from what we seen from the pictures on the hotel booking page. Since we are out most of the time during the days and keeping in mind that hotel stay is expensive in London, we have to make do of the environment. The bed is abit soft but in short decent for a few nights stay without expecting much.

Room

Environment was quite old English style and the room can only cater a small queen bed with a little study desk and TV.

Main Door and Toilet

Toilet may look cramp for some but if you only here for short stay like us, I find it relatively decent. One point to note that the ventilator / Fan in toilet may sound a little bit noisy when switched on.

Toilet

Overall, besides having a good location near St Panceas Station. Despite having the exact same breakfast daily throughout my stay, I like the attitude of their friendly stuff over the reception and breakfast counter.

Breakfast ~ Saussages, Bacon & Scrambled Eggs

Toast, Tomato Puree

My Selection of Breakfast

Another Time

European Hotel
Location: 11-15 Argyle Square, Kings Cross, London WC1H 8AS, United Kingdom

The Orange Lantern

While exploring the revamped IMM, it had given me a handful of surprises with bigger shop spaces and more selection of retails as well as eateries. We spotted The Orange Lantern at the 2nd level and was attracted to the Vietnamese Cuisine. We know of The Orange Lantern years back through the outlet in Harbour Front.

Interior was pretty modern with food furnishings, bamboos decorations and of course you will notice the lanterns hanging as part of their decorations living up to its business name sake.

Interior

Ordering was made easier with the use of Ipad which is secured to the dining table. However, the hard copy of the menu is still available if you are keen on it. We had the set menu for 2 at $39 which allows us to have a choice of appetizer, 2 main courses and choice of 2 drinks from the drink list.

Ipad Ordering

Drinks

This is a total new drink to me. The Penny wort leaves were blended into sweet and refreshing juice giving out its natural dark green color. They have the advantages of being anti-viral, anti-inflammatory and aids in improving your memory.

Penny Wort Juice - $3.90

While my dining partner was a little bit more traditional here, following the vietnamese way enjoying dripping imported vietnamese coffee with sweetener milk. Coffee can be served hot or cold at your choice.

Vietnamese Black Coffee - $4.90

Appetizer

Making a choice between salad or spring rolls, we enjoyed the superior combination of their spring rolls platter which includes, their delicious Rice Paper Rolls, Imperial Rolls and Spring Rolls. 2 kinds of dipping sauce were given too.

Spring Roll Platter

As I seldom have fried spring rolls from the Vietnamese Cuisine, I find that their Imperial Rolls were not too oily, best of all was a good texture, lending a good crispy bite as we sunk our teeth in.

Spring Rolls

Mains

If you know me well, Vietnamese Cuisine simply means a bowl of Pho and good summer rolls, thus this is something I will not skip for sure. Soup is tasty but not the best I had so far in Singapore. It has a mixture of sliced beef, beef brisket and beef balls with their silky Vietnamese rice noodle.

Special Beef Noodle Soup - $11.90

Rice Vermicelli without soup was something we seldom order. The grilled beef was beautifully marinated with lemongrass and together served with fresh lettuce, spring rolls, bean sprouts, basil leaves, cucumber and their own special Vietnamese nuoc mam (dipping sauce).

Grilled Beef & Fried Spring Rolls with Rice Vermicelli

A little good news to Muslim pals who want to enjoy Vietnamese meal ~ The Orange Lantern is Halal Certified. Overall experience was pleasant with friendly service and efficient serving.

Rating: 3 / 5

The Orange Lantern
Location: IMM Building 2 Jurong East St 21 #02-52

Waffletown

Passing by the stretch of eateries along Bukit Timah Road, we finally decided to give waffletown a visit!

Waffletown

The interior kind of remind me to the my younger days in the 80s where parents brought me to fast food. Chairs and tables were affixed to the ground, simple furnishing without being too fanciful unlike what you can see in most cafe nowadays. There isn't any theme here and the atmosphere and surroundings give a feel of "family style".

Interior

Having fried chicken in Waffletown? Wait, I'm a little confused here... Aren't they famous for waffles only? Well, in fact both fried chicken and waffles are the must try over here. To make it a meal, the 3 Pcs Chicken comes with 2 sides like coleslaw and mash potatoes as well as a cup of soft drink.

3 Pcs Meal - $10.50

The deep fried chicken were not very oily and tasted good. This reminds me of having Chic-A-Boo but of course the portion here and pricing cannot be compared.

Close up on the fried chicken

The black pepper chicken chop meal has 3 sides and we had wedges, mashed potatoes and cocktail salad. Chicken Chop was tender with black pepper sauce moderately covering its surface area.

Black Pepper Chicken Chop Meal - $8.60

It tasted just like any old school chicken chop and was not too greasy. Good to know that the black pepper they did here was not too overpowering too!

Black Pepper Chicken Chop

Waffle Ala Mode is served with a scoop of ice cream and 1 topping of your choice. In this case we had black berries, rum and raisin ice cream with whipped cream over the Belgium Waffle. The Belgium Waffle was more of those "ready-to-eat" kind which can be bought off the shelf. Nevertheless, it was still crispy and goes very well with my scoop of ice cream and black berry topping. Ice cream sweetness was moderate and best of the topping is that you can actually get a bite of the fruit without feeling its too artificial.

Waffle Ala Mode - $6.20

Waffletown is a good place to hangout with friends or with family for Waffles, Burgers or Fried Chicken. Chicken portion may be smaller here but still worth the try!

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Waffletown
Location: Balmoral Plaza, 271 Bukit Timah Road #01-08 Singapore 259708

Azur Restaurant

Travelling to Changi for dining is quite an uncommon task that we will do in our checklist. If not for the pair of winning weekdays dining tickets to Azur Restaurant in Crowne Plaza Changi Airport, we would not have been here for a buffet and travelling extremely far end to the East from West (where we are residing).

Azur

Conveniently located at level 2 of Crowne Plaza, Azur Restaurant's winning award buffet offers an extensive range of Asian and Western fare both suitable for locals and foreigners.

Romantic Walkways

This 150 Seating restaurant has a beautiful interior with ceramic tiles in Ultramarine and black.

Dining Atmosphere

Quality and standard of food was above average and with good services rendered. Food were constantly topped up when it is almost finished in the heating pot. Variety may be limited over here as compared to the larger scale buffet in Singapore but I felt that the spread was already very decent.

Roasted Gammon Ham

Enjoy a bowl of Asian Favourites, Salted Vegetable Tofu Soup. Salt was well balance by the natural sweetness from the meat as well as carrot. You can never go wrong by starting off your meal with this as it's quite appetizing. 

Salted Vegetables Tofu Soup

With Asian Soup around, they also catered in the westernized flavoured soup like the Cream of Cauliflower with bacon. Yummy, but take note that if you are still planning to have more food from your buffet, take this in sparingly as its quite "stomach occupying".

Soup

Local delights including our Fried Hokkien Mee was part of the buffet. It was not to my liking with its over-moist noodles and the lack of the prawn oomph, it tasted nothing close to an usual plate of Hawker Hokkien Mee.

Carbonara with Penne was cook to the correct texture and was not too bad.

Mixing the Pasta with Local Fried Hokkien Mee

Western food range from Pasta, Ham, mashed Potatoes and other baked food items.

Mashed Potato, Pasta, Ham and Squid

Enjoy a good mix of Asian delicacies which includes Japanese Sushi, Inaris and even some sweet & Sour meat.

Asian Delights

You can also get to enjoy small bites like Fried Spring Rolls. Prawns on the other hand was freshly steamed in scallions.

Local

Tempura

Bursting full of Barbequed Flavours, with meat generously coated in its sauce. The pork easily fell off the ribs with slightest pressure and I simply love its tenderness too!

BBQ Pork Ribs

The crayfishes were easily depleted as soon as it comes out of the kitchen. It's such a common sight of our local culture "kisuism" in place, seeing our fellow Singaporeans cleared the full load of crayfish tray immediately after they were placed on the buffet counter.

Crayfish

Besides feeling happy with its crayfish, we were please to enjoy the big chunky sea bass that was pan-seared. I love the part where its skin was charred and giving the crispy bite.

Seabass

I'm not a Red Velvet person and I wasn't too keen and felt its topping was kind of cloying.

Red Velvet Cake

The petite desserts were so lovely that makes me unbearable to have them eaten up. Little puffs and mango pudding were good!

Desserts

Yam and vanilla ice cream did not go well as expectation. Vanilla was more towards a sour taste while Yam Ice Cream had an overpowering coconut milk taste.

Desserts

It has been a while since I had my last buffet. Though variety range may be a lacking here but food were definitely decent, despite visiting them on a weekday. Atmosphere of dining is worth your consideration too!

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Azur Restaurant
Location: Crowne Plaza Changi Airport, 75 Airport Boulevard Level 2 Singapore 819664
Website