The French Table

How about a French Cuisine at an affordable rate?

The French Table is a newly open restaurant locate at West Coast Plaza. It has quite a good ambience, being located at the end of a row of eating shops. The items on the menu was fairly reasonable. I was catching a quick lunch over there and i think it is worth a post. I ordered their lunch set meal, which i think it is worth all the price.

The set menu consist of a drink, a soup and a main at only $12.90++.

You can see how thick my iced lemon tea is. The tea don't really taste like those syrup made kind of tea, it is full of lemon tea flavours.

Mushroom Soup

This is the best mushroom soup i ever had. The soup that has a very rich flavour of mushroom, and bread crumbs added on it. This soup tasted so authentic that you won't doubt if there is any mushroom in it. But this soup must be consumed when it is hot, otherwise it tasted a bit sick when it turns cold.

Fish and Chips

 I ordered fish and chips as my main. The fries were remained crispy, despite having it as the last portion on my plate, but it is still just french fries.
Sadly i didn't finish up my fish, eating only 1 slice of the fish, because it was a little too salty for me. Probably the marination of the fish was overly done with salt.

Chocolate Mousse- Dessert

You are able to add a $3++ to the main course for a dessert. The dessert of the day was chocolate mousse with vanilla ice cream. Desserts are my favourite! This dessert comprises of dark chocolate mousse, vanilla ice cream and some crumbs on top. Well, i would say this is good for the price. :D

I will still visit The French Table again for their food. Because the money i am paying is worth on what's going into my mouth!

Ratings:
Food: 3.8 / 5.0
Ambience: 4.0 / 5.0
Service: 4.5 / 5.0
Price: $$ - $$$

Address:
154 West Coast Road,
#02-26 West Coast Plaza
Singapore 127371
No Reservations are Required.

Portico - 5th Year Anniversary

It was our 5th dating year together yesterday. Chosen a newly opened restaurant - Portico, located at Alexandra Road.

This restaurant location is a little bit off site from where usual crowds would be like Holland Village, Club Street, Tanjong Pagar etc. But it's location is quite convenient where MRT(Labrador MRT) is just less than 1km away.

Portico is serving fine dining food in a reasonable and affordable price, not those kind that the plates come with 1 prawn and it gonna cost you $100.

Setting of Portico 

The ambience was comfortable, you don't feel tense up like how you are in a fine dining restaurant, afraid of the noise coming up from the brushing of utensils. This place is a good place for friends to hand out too.

Foie Gras with Bread and Tomato Sauce

This was a complimentary dish from the kitchen. I had a bad experience with foie gras before, and it really took me some courage to try this appertiser. The ones that i had previously was so awful that i couldn't swallow, and hoping to spit out immediately (Do not wish to name that restaurant, quite famous in Singapore). This, was different, though i still don't enjoy much of the taste, but it doesn't have the foul taste that i had the other time. Going with the bread and tomato sauce was kind of interesting.

Fish and Chips with Mint Peas

Beef with Pear and Mashed Potatoes

The fish was my main and the beef was my boyf's main. It was good, but i really don't like the minty peas. Other than that, everything was really good. :D

Dessert

Before ending, we ordered a dessert to share as we were kind of full. This raspberry dessert was nice, the white shattered parts were actually meringues, and it goes so well with the raspberry sorbet. OMG, THIS IS GOOD. 2 THUMBS UP. The meringues were not too sweet, so the ice cream complements the meringues, not forgetting the white chocolate mousse there too.

Blueberry Cheesecake

This was a surprise. The chef had done this for us. Isn't that very sweet of the staffs over there?

This is definitely a place i would recommend to all, whether you are a local or tourist, visit this place, with amazing and friendly staffs, they will brighten your day and shine your nights.

Ratings:
Food: 4.0 / 5.0
Ambience: 4.5 / 5.0
Service: 4.5 / 5.0
Price: $$$ - $$$$

Address:
991B Alexandra Road
#01-10
Singapore 119970
No reservations is required, but if you are afraid of weekends disappointment, best is you book a table. :D

Food Blogging (2)

Another food review!

Yesterday was Uncle's Birthday and we decided to head down to Causeway Point Shopping Mall for Swensens.

As remembered, Swensens was up for their name for their Ice Creams. I had Swensens countless time, and this, i have to say, the quality have gone way way down our expectations.

I guess in this post, i have to put on nasty comments about the food.

Bread Bowl Mushroom Soup

This mushroom soup, look nice on the menu cover, and nice on the plate, but awful in your mouth. YUCKS. There is a funny taste to it, and i really can't describe what taste was it, it was like some sourish taste, AHH, its just a ewww.

Onion Rings

No comments to the onion rings. It just tasted like this.

Mozerella Cheese Sticks

I dont know what to say about this. The mozerella have absolutely no fragrance at all, and when you bite off, the mozerella was so rubbery and unbreakable that you could pull it across the table. WAIT, was that even edible?

Fries with Barbecue Sauce and Mayonaise

Used to be my all-time-favourite. The barbecue sauce was a great disappoinment.

Come down to our main courses:

Grilled Salmon Topped with Pesto Sauce
Served with Mashed Potatoes & Vegetables-of-the-Day

Grilled Fish Sambal
Served with Mashed Potatoes & Vegetables-of-the-Day

Spaghetti Aglio Olio

Lets talk about the Aglio Olio first - It was the nicest among all 3 dishes! Haha! Spaghetti was cooked to the perfect timing, and the aroma of the garlic oil is doing its job to flavour the spaghetti. Yums!

Next, Fish Sambal. The sambal was good, but not the fish. The fish was overly cooked, leaving the fish to be so dry. So don't get cheated by the caption of "Oh so good fish....".

Lastly, the salmon. BAD BAD BAD! How does a piece of unfresh salmon taste like? Try that. and the gravy was OMG! It looks like some expired gravy, where it was so watery and you could even see the oil floating above the sauce, and the texture was similar to what a vomit looks like. So in the end we asked for a tar tar sauce to replace that gruesome sauce right on our plate.

Topless Five!

At last our desserts are served. So the flavour we chose for our ice cream was: Macadamia, Supreme Durian, Chendol, Cookies & Cream and Hazelnut.

If you want to give it a try, i would recommend Hazelnnut and Durian. The drurian was good (I love durians!) so does the hazelnut. I am not a macadamia nut fan, but heard that it is not bad.

Never you would want to order Cookies & Cream, it just tasted very normal. Chendol is good, but its a little bit too sweet. Sso if you have a strong sweet tooth, it can be recommended, the taste of the gula melaka is quite strong in it too.

Rating:

Staff Friendliness: 1.5 / 5.0 (Poor staffs attentiveness, that you might just want to approach the counter yourself to place your orders. Oh! and remember to go with a good mood, the sulky face of the staffs wont pleasant your dining there.)

Food: 2.0 / 5.0 (Sorry not my choice of restaurant to visit unless for their ice cream)

Variety: 4.0 / 5.0 (Yes, there are quite a number of varieties. I didn't get to try all, so probably if you have ate any nice food, you can comment and let me know! >.<)

Ambience: 3.0 / 5.0 

Price: $$-$$$

Address:

1 Woodlands Square,

Level 2, #02-08/09

Causeway Point Shopping Mall (Woodlands MRT)

Tel: +65 894 2086 (No Reservations are allowed. First come first serve basis.)

Website: www.swensens.com.sg

I have visited the above outlet, and there are more outlets in Singapore. My reviews are based on Causeway Point Swensen's standard.

Food Blogging (1)

Hello People,

So today i'm gonna do a bit of food reviews based on my own personal experience. No incentives were given to blog on these places.

Spuds and Aprons:

Spuds and Aprons is a casual dining restaurant in The Jewel Box (soon to be named as Mountain of Happiness), located at Mount Faber Road, one of a tourist attraction place in Singapore. The scenery there can be breath taking at night.

This is my view from my seating. I am kinda lazy to walk around taking pictures like other tourist. I was mad hungry for not having my breakfast.

View from my seating. This is a view on my left.
On my right, you could actually see cable cars coming from Sentosa.

I reached there in noon time, and i started my orders with "Wicked Fries & Gravy". It is basically potato wedges with 6 types of cheese and brown gravy.

Wicked Fries & Gravy (Steakhouse Cut Spuds with 6 types of Cheese & Brown Sauce)

It was being served in a metal pan, a portion perfect for 3-4pax. The fries tasted normal to me, if you are looking for a new flavour for potatoes, this is not worth having. Advise: Eat it quick, once it turns cold, your cheese turns cold and becomes rubbery, which is disgusting like having some sort of cheesy-gum. 

Being served next was a Berries Smoothie. It is a blend mixture of mixed berries, yogurt and vanilla ice cream. Not much to my likings because the yogurt taste was too strong that i can't seem to taste the berries sourness in it. Okay~ i like the purple (yay..)

Berry Smoothie

Served up next was my main dish. Pan Fried Salmon coated in polenta.

Pan Fried Polenta Coated Salmon
(Norweigian Salmon Crusted with Polenta, Cooked to "Pinkfection"
and served with Arugula Salad & Citrus Salsa)

This can be recommended to Salmon lovers, the taste is good. And i found some potatoes given in this dish too, under the fish. I am not a fan of vegetables, especially Arugula (or the simple name Wild Rocket) is the first vegetable that will not be on my list, i dislike the bitter taste to it. But i guess all vegetables should taste as how it should taste. Forget about the vegetables.

Okay, this dish was supposed to be cooked till medium raw, with only the top being cooked. But i can't stand the taste of raw fishes, so i requested for my salmon to be perfectly well done. The salmon is fresh, with nice salty taste of the crust. The sourness of the citrus salad was a good combination to the pan fried salmon.

This dish will be on my bill on my next visit.

Lastly, DESSERTS. 

Chocolate Cake
(Not in the menu. Apparently nothing much attracted me to
the desserts on the menu. You will just have to go over to the counter and
order from there, you can add a scoop of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream as complement.)

The cake was moist, with rich flavour of the chocolate ganache. The mousse wasn't too sweet as well. 

Overall, this place is a good place for couples, families, workaholic and tourist who is looking for lunch choices (you could just take the cable car up). 

To tourist, you could even try local delicacies offered like Laksa, XO Fish Soup, Hokkien Noodle, Singapore Curry Noodle and etc (but only between 12pm-2.30pm). After your dining, you can take a stroll at the Mount Faber Park, it will be a memorable place for your camera to capture it down. 

Before that, you might want to take a look at their toilet (Awarded as Best Toilet in the World Toilet Category on the French International Website). Haha! I sanpshot with my handphone (pardon for the bad lighting and i dont know how my pictures turned green when it supposed to be on a bright sunny day)

Look! There's a little fountain in the middle of
the hand wash basin. Haha!

That's a fat me with my geek glasses and a bloated
stomach after my lunch. 

Fun Things you could try there!

Challenge their Mountain of Happiness, by finishing 16 scoops Ben & Jerry's ice cream (8 flavours) in 15mins, and you get to go into their Wall of Fame and get a free funky apron!

Rating:

Staff Friendliness: 4.0 / 5.0

Food: 3.5 / 5.0

Variety: 4.0 / 5.0

Ambience: 4.0 / 5.0

Price: $$$

Address:

109 Mount Faber Road,

Level 2,

Singapore 099203

Tel: +65 377 9688 (Call for Reservation to prevent disappointment for night diners.)