Amazonia Bistro [Invited Tasting]

Looking at the number of Children Gyms, indoors playground and Activities Centre coming up close to us, I always envy how fortunate the kids are these days to have such facilities readily built for them and to look back in my time, we never got any chance to even step into one.

The trip to Amazonia had somehow rekindle the fun times of my childhood and the happy looks of cute little toddlers/children running around in the centre had never failed to brighten up my day.

Amazonia is conveniently located at Level 3 of Great world City, ajacent to V.Hive Furniture.

Amazonia Family Fun Centre

The idea of incorporating a Bistro to the Fun Centre was definitely a very good step forward for such activities centre in terms of the market requirements nowadays. Further more, the Jungle Themed bistro is a good place for parents to rest and relax under the shades while watching their children enjoying their fun time.

Jungle Theme Bistro 

The 400 square metres gym is equipped with an 8 meter high slide shown in the middle of the picture and completed with tunnels, suspension bridges, ball pit and even trampoline to excite children from ages 3 to 12 years.

Jungle Play Gym

Turn the session into an interactive one by joining your toddler in the Soft Play Section.

Soft Play

Parents can enjoy from a selection of pasta, sandwiches, local delights or even light snacks with their kids.

Menu

Beverage

Cooling and refreshing Apple Juice which tasted similar to one of the brands from the Supermarket but in a diluted form. A slice of apple is also included in the drink.

Apple Juice - $5

Appetizers

Starting our appetizer with the Chef Recommended Ceasar Avocado Salad which includes refreshing crunchy Romaine lettuce, sliced Avocado, olives, cherry tomato, hard boiled eggs, grated cheese, bacon bits, garlic croutons and grilled chicken breast in Ceasar Dressing. Such appetizer is light and hearty in preparing to welcome the main courses.

Ceasar Salad with Avocado - $13.80

Main Courses

Another recommendation from the Chef is none other than the popular food known in Asia, Nasi Goreng (Fried Rice). Color presentation of the food alluring besides the food items on plate.

Being truly Asian, you will get to see familiar items on the plate like mild spicy Nasi Goreng, fried chicken drumstick, chicken satay, sunny side up egg, keropok and Ah-Char. Satay was undeniably good in its tender meat and tasty marinate which made us could not resist, thus requesting for separate Satay helpings.

While the drumsticks were huge and dressed in its glistering "suit", its meat was quite tough and we had took some time to battle with it.

Chef Nasi Goreng - $12.70 (Serving Portion is for illustration)

2 Pieces of marinated tiger prawn was grilled in garlic sweet and spicy sauce. Together with the spicy kick of the Sambal Chilli, it was very tasty and definitely spelled out the characteristics of our local delicacy with banana leaf as base. On top of having the prawns, freshly cooked vegetables were served with steam rice too.

Spicy Garlic Tiger Prawns - $15.20

Could you resist such temptations?

Beautifully Grilled Prawns

Desserts

Here comes the sweet treat after finishing the mains. Chocolate Fondant topped with vanilla ice-cream is a perfect closure to the meal. The ice cream was adorn with mint leaves and the dessert was surrounded by button chocolates and chocolate fudge on the plate. Cake was moist and with rich semi sweet chocolate fondant in it. Yummy!

Chocolate Fondant with Ice Cream

Amazonia Bistro is not limited to the kids as they have also extended their invitation to nearby office working class for an Office Express Lunch from 12-3pm with games to destress themselves.

Personally, I enjoyed the most from the space ball room. Room was painted with their special glow in the dark artwork. illustrating a wonderful space environment with a resident alien watching over its territory.

Space Jam Room

Room was equipped with 8 hydraulic driven cannons and an electronic scoreboard that will reflect the scores instantly once you hit the target / enemy. Come on, let's shoot the enemy with the softballs!

Glow in the Dark

You can also get a party experience in Amazonia for your kid's birthday. They have 2 theme party rooms, one for the boy and the other for the girls holding up to as many as 40 children. Scheduled with interesting games and activities, Amazonia will leave a good memory on your child's special day.

Take a look at the Amazonia a racing car theme room all prepared for the boys.

Kids Theme Party Room - Guys

Whereas for little girls, they can enjoy themselves as princesses in the castle and get to dine on the beautiful pink carriages. Envy not?

Kids Theme Party Room for Girls

Do take note that there are designated party hours slots to follow, so book in advance to avoid disappointment.

Disposable Utensils

Last but not least, a 3D Glow Golf indoor 9 putting course suitable for children age 4 and above, also applicable for family fun .

3D Glow Golf Putters

Similar to the Space Jam, environment is dark with glowing artwork. You will get to see moving props in theme like Pirates, Sea Creatures and Dinosaur.

Dinosaur 

I'm pretty amazed by the props, fun and amount of space used in designing the entire entertainment centre.

Bright Octopus

With the bright and colorful ambiance, I simply could not resist to play a few rounds of golf. Having fun is of no age limit, so let your hair down and have fun!

Pirates

Lights up! After golfing, please remember to return your sticks here.

Grab your stick here!

Come this July, they will be marking their 5th Anniversary. With such successful concept in Singapore, Amazonia has spreaded it wings into Jarkata, Indonesia which has 4 times the space of current location in Singapore. Other than kids party and school group's learning journey, they are open to corporate group dynamics, events like team building, thus if you think that Amazonia is only for kids, its not so in this case!

Thanks OpenRice for the Invitation.


Rating: 3 / 5

Amazonia Bistro
Location: Great World City, 1 Kim Seng Promenade #03-08 Singapore 237994

I Am Legend [Invited Tasting]

I Am Legend is housed in the food court of The Big Box at level 3. With The Big Box as Singapore's largest mega Warehouse Retail Mall, enjoy shopping and dining there as you will feel spacious with great ceiling height.

I Am Legend

No doubt Seafood Aglio Olio was the first dish served out of the kitchen, its assortment of seafood had drawn a closer attention on us. They are just never too stingy with the prawns, sotong (squids) and baby scallops used. The dish came to us in watery form which was an unusual sight as compared with the past Aglio Olio we had elsewhere. Nevertheless, it had a good spicy taste that perks up the dish.

Seafood Aglio Olio - $11.90

For those with low spicy tolerance, do remember to make your friendly request to reduce the level of spice.

Featuring its Spaghetti 

I Am Legend threw me a surprise with this item on its menu. Pretty well grilled eggplant that still retain the moist and sponginess even after going through the heat. Presentation looked unappealing with hints that it might be soaking up most of the oil which deters healthy eaters from having them. Though mozzarella Cheese with pesto sauce were part of this make, i still find the dish lackuster.

Grilled Aubergine - Price TBA

The truffle fries could not make justice to its price tag. There were little or none truffle fragrance since it was served. This finger food was plain usual leaving the only highlight with shaved Parmesan cheese topping up the fries.

Truffle Fries - $8.90

The pleasing rich look of the the Salted Egg Yolk was tempting enough for salted egg yolk lover like me.In fact, this dish will permanently be in the menu from 29th February. Chef personally explained that he made use of quality salted eggs from China, Vietnam and Taiwan. He had also added that these eggs were fermented for 3 days as a preparation to the dish.

A generous amount of creamy salted egg coated prawns together with consistent texture of spaghetti was stomach warming. The use of curry leaves and bird-eye cut chilli had spiced up a little for the pasta. It's decent enough and of course there are better ones out there.

Salted Egg Yolk Pasta - $15.90

For those who shared that thought of not ordering grilled fish from the Western Stall in Food Court, its time to make a change. Yes, it might be a little cumbersome to deal with fish bones but its all worth the trouble. Looking at the creased on its skin and its awesome taste from the brown savoury sauce, they were good to satiate your appetite. Having squeezed lemon juice to reduce the fishy taste, the grilled fish was perfect in its tangy, sweet taste coupled with a few slices of pineapple.

Grilled Fish - $15.90

Making the table of us happy will be their Fish & Chips from the Dory Fish. With their home-brand Tatar Sauce that was a tad spicy to balance out the greasiness on these 3 big pieces of Fish remained good enough to keep the smiles on our faces. The battered layer was crispy and not too thick which led to a direct good bite from the golden layer into its chunky meat pieces while the sides like the fries & coleslaw were just ordinary.

Fish & Chips - $10.90

The smell from the charred mutton chops had already gave the dish away without us further guessing the items on the plate. These mutton chops were marinated before hand and one can really taste the "herby" flavours in it. Lamb chop is quite a heaty dish to me and I have to limit my intakes of this dish after all the Chinese new year goodies especially when the dipping sauce is black pepper. Though, it looked overcooked, the color of the lamb chop was not equivalent to the toughness of the meat. It remained as tender as what mutton chop is. Replacing the original sides with onions rings was seen as a good alternative as they were no typical flour batter without much taste of onions. Over here, its definite that you get to bite on the real onions no matter which piece you choose!

Mutton Chop

Hits and Misses, given such Western Fusion Food sold in Food Court, standards were not bad and pricing is relatively cheaper, moreover serving is hearty. Since the actual launch of the dishes is on 29 Feb, they still have time to adjust and perfect the dishes. Do give this "Legend" your support!

Last but not least, thanks OpenRice for the invitation.

Rating: 3 / 5

I Am Legend
Location: Big Box Warehouse Retail Mall, 1 Venture Avenue level 3 Singapore 608521

Ser Wong Fun

Have you visited the longest stretch of escalators in Hong Kong? If you have not, dont worry, you are not alone as I have been to Hong Kong more than 5 times but never know they have the world's longest outdoor covered escalator system that is over 800 meters long and rising 135 meters through the streets of a steep hillside linking the districts.

In any case if you feel hungry after walking down the slopes, do check out for Ser Wong Fun as they were strongly advocated not only for their Snake delicacies but as well as roasted delights.

Ser Wong Fun

Interior was decent, well kept with semi modern Chinese style furnishing. As it was still early for dinner hours, we were the first group in the restaurant and we observed the quiet timing at the hour. It wasn't bad either as we could still observe staff gathered around a table enjoying their in-house cooked meals. Menu is printed in Chinese and

It's not yet dinner hours thus the empty seating

It's time to "eat snake", not literally but physically. :)  In traditional Chinese medicine, they believe that eating snake soup aids in warming / heating up the body, chasing away the wind and dampness in the body. And in this cooling weather right in Hong Kong, if you are feeling a little "weak" or cold, trying this thick and generous serving of snake meat topped with fried wanton skins is an absolute good choice!

Though snake meat taste like chicken, many do still have the thought on mind that they do have a snake taste. Fret not, this portion had been well taken care with shredded Kaffir lime leaves added.

Snake Soup - 95 HKD

For those who felt squeamish about eating snakes, do not worry about that as they do serve other Chinese cooked dishes and Hong Kong Style Roasted Delights!

As a Singaporean in Hong Kong, having roasted goose is a luxury and I just could skip myself with one on the plate. We could not agree more on the crispy roasted skin of the goose and soon our plates were polished clean.

Char Siew & Roasted Goose Rice - 130 HKD

Amount of gravy was given sparingly which was not really my style as I'm one who likes gravy covering my whole plate. However, on they other hand this gave a perfect hit on the immaculate fragrant white rice, thus it did not deter me from liking them.

Another View of my dinner

Just take a closer look at the delicious slice of Char Siew. The perfect ratio of meat to fat is something we won't feel sinful after eating slices of them!

Tasty Slice of Char Siew

Also known for their typical Cantonese Style Sausages here, this is something that you may not want to miss out. We bought 2 types to share among us and texture were great with excellent flavours.

Chinese Sausage - 20 HKD

The pork liver sausage was perfectly infused with rose wine. It was of a darker color and texture was more pate than the original sausage.

Chinese Sausage - Pork Liver - 20 HKD

Overall, it was a good bet that we actually went into the right shop base on writings on the internet. Food was better than expectation and I won't mind a return trip for other food!

Ser Wong Fun
Location: G/F, 30 Cochrane Street, Central, Hong Kong 中環閣麟街30號地舖

Monochrome Fusion Bistro

Making this Valentine's day special, we had our lunch over in Monochrome Fusion Bistro which is quaintly nestled among the row of shop houses at the Chinatown district, directly opposite the Buddha Relic Temple. As photography hobbyists ourselves, the word Monochrome speaks close to our heart and somehow we found ourselves closely related in there.

Store front

Interior is modernly design to taste, with colors making up of black and white which is in line with their Monochrome theme. The dining area is a long walkway from the entrance and all the way to their cashier counter.

Interior

In fact it is divided to two section, the one nearer to the entrance has dining on bar counters too. However, the temperature is much more cooler if you were to have the inner seating.

Seating near the entrance

As we were ahead of our reservation timing, there were Keeping our order to a convenient way, we took up the Valentine's time day set at $68 ++ for 2 pax. The package comes with a choice of salad and soup of the day with 2 main courses (mains or pasta) and a dessert for 2.

Menu

With Mushroom Soup as their soup of the day to start our Valentine's Day Meal. Soup was not too thick and was quite hearty with mushrooms bits. Looks like it had short of some toast to go along.

Soup of the day

Perhaps one would say "Ah, not just another Caesar Salad again!". Indeed it is but a modified version with warm slices of healthy sliced chicken breasts apart from the usual ingredients like fresh greens, roasted olive, hard boiled egg, croutons and bacon bits.

Mr. Cardini's Salad - $11

Starting our main course with this truffle infused Squid Ink Risotto and this was absolute stomach grabbing. The pan-seared scallops were nothing out of ordinary and was rather tasteless, not even giving a sweet bite. However the winning focus all went to the crunchy quinoa, parmesan cheese, edamame beans and alfalfa sprouts that had accompanied by every grain of creamy black ink coated risotto. Yums!

Squid Ink Risotto - $24

As they were dishing out the order, I thought they were serving some spaghetti with fried chicken stips from far and was kind of interested. Who knows, they actually walked up to our table and placed the order in front of us, thus we realised it was the chilli Crab Linguini we had ordered.

Chilli Crab Linguini - $22

Spicy not? Well, i was quite adaptive to the level of spice and I would rate a level of 1 out of 3. Linguini had perfect texture and coated with Singapore's favourite - Chilli Crab Sauce with hints of stir-fried crab meat. Just alone with the pasta is good enough as a recommendation even without the deep fried soft shell crab that looked like fried chicken to me initially.

Recommended!

Ending the 3 course meal with sweet note by this in house dessert created solely just for Valentine's Day. The platter is make up of a fruit cake and 2 scoops of ice cream.

Desserts

The fruit cake was decorated in according to the color theme of the bistro, black and white and was lovely done in heart shape showered with raisins, almonds and cashew nuts. Cake was quite dry and collapse into even smaller portions easily when we cut into bite size.

Fruit Cake

Not sure if the ice cream suppose to come in the shape of roses. Chocolate ice creamed is showered with romantic heart shapes of icing and oreo crumbs were added to enhance the chocolate flavors.

Chocolate Ice Cream

Zig Zag patterns using chocolate syrup had also elevated the presentation of desserts.

Vanilla Ice Cream

What I like about monochrome is the way that food was prepared even in a festive day. Instead of serving and cook in by mass order to save the amount of time used, they chose to served their customers base dish by dish ensuring that the standard of food maintains without compromising any factor. Unlike my past experiences during Valentine's day, waiting time was long with food came in a rush and dining period was limited. Monochrome was well organised with prompt service from servers and situation was more in control. The overall experience was great and left a good impression in me. A return visit is definite.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Monochrome Fusion Bistro
Location: 291 South Bridge Road Singapore 058836