Dessert Time @ Yat Ka Yan 一家人 Fortune Centre

It was a Friday evening and we decided to have dessert ahead of dinner because, why not? Located at Level 2 of Fortune Centre, it was about 10 minutes walk from Bugis MRT station.

We queued up at the entrance counter (cashier?) intending to place our orders first while waiting for a seat. And lucky us, a staff came over to aide and informed that we could be seated at Table 13 and then order from the counter.

interior

 

The place has a retro feel and the menu have a couple of savoury snacks that one could choose from instead of just having sweet dessert. Tempting, but we stuck to our mission of having the sweet stuffs!

menu

Ice Jelly Passionfruit with Soursop @$5.50

Durian Chendol @$7.50

Chendol @ $4

Fresh Mango Sago with ice-cream @$7

Service was fast and efficient with the desserts served within 5 minutes after placing our orders.

The Ice Jelly Passionfruit with Soursop was only mildly fragrant with the passionfruit sauce/syrup, and some sweetness with a slight satisfying tangy flavour, distinct to soursop. Jelly was not too chewy and slid down well after a few bites. Refreshing and perfect for the hot and humid weather. Noted that after mixing the ice, one might not be remember that there's passionfruit in this concoction. 

Yen was funny. She was raving about 'Avocado Sago' (as seen from Insta) and was recommending it to us when we were thinking of what to order. As you might have guessed from the photos, we didn't. Haha!

She went with Durian Chendol, so we ordered a regular Chendol to do a comparision taste test. Verdict, unless you have a craving for durian, I would recommend the regular chendol simply because when one has durian as a topping, the rest of the ingredients will be overshadowed. I enjoyed the original flavours of the chendol, and it was adequately sweet with the fragrance of the gula melaka. The texture of the green rice flour jelly, was one of the better ones I've tasted.

Personally, my favourite goes to Fresh Mango Sago Pomelo with ice-cream. That dollop of ice-cream was really generous! Plus, one gets chunky sweet mango and that brown sugar jelly bits in the bowl added to the enjoyment. A bowl of cold, creamy dessert with fresh mango. Yums!

Icy adventures with Jingwen, Yen and Eric.

Yat Ka Yan 一家人 Dessert (Fortune Centre)

Address: 190 Middle Rd, #02-08 Fortune Centre, Singapore 188979

Instagram: https://instagram.com/yatkayan

Contact: +6587989292

Business Hours:

Closed on Tue.

Mon, Wed - Thu: 12–10 PM

Fri - Sun: Friday, 1:30–10 PM

Wawa Lala Bee Hoon @ Fortune Centre

The ladies wanted to try this lala beehoon, so I tagged along. Located at Fortune Centre and seemed popular. Was able to spot the signage from across the road before reaching the building.

Was there at about 12pm on a Public Holiday and the place was starting to get busy. The system here is that diners should order and pay first before getting a table. Collect foods from either counter when they are ready. No buzzer, so just watch out for yours or sometimes, when diners were too engrossed in chatting, the friendly staff will call out to the table.

lunch for 4 pax

We ordered their Signature Power Drunken Lala Soup with either tang hoon or bee hoon options. Staff will ask if you would like it to be less spicy, and I actually will suggest to say yes to that. Reason was, we found out that the default 2 chilies strength, was spicier than expected. In my opinion, it was a level 3 out of 5 kind of spicy! Most likely the ginger used on that day contributed to that spiciness as well as the cut chilies in the soup.

Signature Power Drunken Lala Soup with glass noodles @$8.90

The glass noodle option worked better for the dish as it provided a greater contrast in texture. Otherwise, the rice vermicelli (bee hoon) option actually soaks up more of the soup, so it was tasty too!

plump fresh clams

Clams were nice and retained its sweetness. The wine strength in the soup was pretty mild. Quite a strong taste of ginger. The noodles was decorated by quite a bit of coriander, hence do inform the staff not to put any, if you don't like it.

For drinks, we had the homemade lime juice. Nice to quench thirst as well as to put out some of the spiciness!

Homemade Lime Juice @$2

Of course, we also ordered the strongly recommended seehum (fresh cockles). Wah... it had been so long since I had legit sized ones as these. Cravings satisfied. Plump and non-funky. Slurpilicious!

Fresh Cockles Marinated with Special Sauce @$12.90

big ones

For snacks, we also ordered the new Buffalo Wings. This reminded me of the toaster oven wings that I used to make, way back during my uni days. In comparison with the other dishes, I think buffalo wings was a tad pricey.

Buffalo Wings (6 pieces) @$8.90

buffalo wings

I liked the chawanmushi. Sweet dashi, and lovely custard texture. But, it'll be better if the clams were deshelled first...

Fresh Lala chawanmushi @$4.50

Overall conclusion, the signature dishes are tasty, value for money and staff are friendly. If you're not spice lord, then you may want to request for non-spicy version or a less spicy version of the lala soup. 

live clams in a tank

Wawa Lala Bee Hoon

Address: 190 Middle Rd, #01-11/12, Singapore 188979

Website: https://take.app/a/wawa

Business Hours:

Closed on Mondays.

Tue - Sun: 11:30 AM–9:30 PM

Fat Bird 胖胖鸡 @ Liang Seah Street

It was time to have a meal together and this place was suggested by Darren/Jeff. Chinese food with chicken hotpot as the mains. Seems like they have a buffet option as well with the same/similar food from ala-carte menu.

We went for ala-carte to test test first, so to speak. It was like everyone's first time having a meal at this shop.

simple dinner

Think we got the Spicy & Fragrant Chicken, medium pot. It was decent but not the tastiest chicken pot that I ever had. We were in a group of 5, so there wasn't a whole lot of chicken meat in there but adequate as a side. Sauce was just a hint of spicy, so it was nice to pour over the rice. Staff would come by to refill the soup for the chicken pot.

Spicy & Fragrant Chicken 香辣鸡公煲 ($32.80 Medium)

Spicy Chicken Cubes 辣子鸡 ($19.80)

The Spicy Chicken Cubes here also paled in comparison to others that I had tried before. The chicken here was somewhat dry and a tad hard after deep fried. Spice level was manageable. Loved the nuts that they put in there.

I didn't manage to take a picture of Wok Fried Fragrant Yam 香炒芋头 but it was good. Order this one as a snack. Yums.

String Beans with Minced Pork & Dried Chilli 干煸四季豆 ($10.80)

I enjoyed the String Beans with Minced Pork & Dried Chilli dish. Flavourful and goes well with the rice.

Mouth Watering Chicken 口水鸡 ($9.80)

We only ordered pork belly skewers towards the end of the meal to have a try. Wow, actually we should have ordered more skewers! Pork belly was sooooo goood! Fatty, yes. But soooooo goood! Now give me a Tsingtao.

Pork Belly 秘制五花肉 ($2 per stick)

Let's do a buffet next time, and try more of the chicken pots and skewers! And, let's order some beer too!

Lovely times with Gilbert, Ziqing, Darren and Jeff.
 

Fat Bird 胖胖鸡

Address: 1 Liang Seah St, #01-15/16, Singapore 189022

Website: https://fatbird.com.sg/

Contact: +65 6337 0612

Business Hours:

Sun-Wed: 11 AM–1 AM

Thu-Sat: 11 AM–2 AM

Herbivore By Zen Japanese Vegetarian Restaurant @ Fortune Center

This place was recommended by my colleague whom is a vegetarian. Prior to this, I'd usually think of Elemen, if we are looking for a vegetarian restaurant.

The restaurant is inside Fortune Center, and pretty easy to find. The shop was smaller in size than anticipated.

restaurant entrance

almost all tables have a 'Reserved' tag

We were dining on a Saturday evening, and hence reservation is a must. The place was bustling! Trays after trays of food were being sent out from the kitchen and looks like bento was commonly ordered amongst the diners.

order pad

Although we weren't inform of the time limitation when making reservation, there was a small signage inside the restaurant that indicated so. If I remembered correctly, each table was limited to a 75 minutes dining during peak hours.

Ordering was easy via the order pad placed on each table. I ordered a drink and will eat whatever that my colleagues had ordered prior to my arrival (sorry, I was the last to arrive!).

my drink

Tonkatsu bento @$22

Teriyaki Chicken bento @$22

The bento seemed to have the same side dishes and dessert, hence the only difference was in its 'main'. From the bento sets, I prefer the tonkatsu more than the teriyaki chicken. Reason being, there was some herb taste with the teriyaki chicken and I didn't like that.

Other than that, the nicest side dish was the donut looking thingy that tasted almost like a 'squid' ring, Pretty yums.

fried rings (at the back) was yummy

The fresh springroll was rather healthy tasting. Loved that there's a small side dish of salad as well.

fresh and healthy tasting

small salad of lettuce, turnips, radish and cherry tomatoes

The sauce/dressing seemed to be soy/sesame predominantly. There was one small side dish that consisted of beancurd skin and that came with spicy sauce.

hot pot

Not sure which hotpot my colleagues ordered as it looked like the tofu and yasai hotpot, but it came with 'pork belly' and that was an eye opener. Really tasty and the texture was almost similar to the 'real' thing. It amuses me every time! 

However, the most recommended item were the unagi maki and the mushroom cheese.

mushroom cheese

First impression of the mushroom cheese? Wow, it was really a flavour burst! And, by far the most salty amongst the rest of the items that I had tried that night.

Unagi Maki @$14

I liked the unagi maki the best! Balanced flavours and best tasting. Lovely!

closer view of the maki

We spent about $35 per pax for a meal here.

Herbivore

Address: 190 Middle Rd, #01-13/14 Fortune Centre, Singapore 188979

Website: https://www.herbivore.sg/

Contact: +65 6333 1612

Business Hours: 

Daily: 11:30AM–2:30PM, 5–9PM

One Night Staycation at Hotel G and Dinner & Breakfast at 25 Degrees Burger, Wine and Liqour Bar

What was the experience staying at Hotel G? Read on to find out! The stay was in late Nov 2020 and before the mad rush using the voucher. Managed to get a good deal from Agoda where the stay was for about $110 per night with breakfast in a Good Queen Room.

Booking was a breeze and the hotel will send a reminder via Agoda/email for the slot to check-in. Mine was allocated for 2pm to 3pm.

Lobby was small and there was a queue (still manageable) for guests checking in as well as checking out.

Liked that there are adequate staff on hand to guide the guests. I was handed the Health Declaration Checklist form to fill-up but it was kind of a challenge due to the dim lightings and small fonts on the hardcopy. Age has certainly caught up!

The check-in process took about half hour and was allocated a room at Level 15. Not bad.

hotel G

lift up to the room

room to the right

here we go

Good Queen Room 11 m²/118 ft²

Hotel G room are known to be small and compact, so it was not surprisingly. The room felt cosy and the music had already started immediately when guest enters the room. The workdesk is smallish and it was crowded once I placed my laptop on it. 

Queen bed was on an elevated platform and for vertically-challenged ones like me, have to be careful not to bump my knees most of the time.

nice view of MBS

mugs and kettle

yes, it was dusty

boxed water 

Overall, there are dust spots in the room but other areas cleanliness are ok. 

thank you for providing the Care Pack!

toiletries from Australian brand Metis

bathroom

I see what you did

The bathing area and the toilet bowl is separated by a shower curtain. I think this is my first time seeing a shower curtain in a hotel in Singapore. Have to try my best to avoid the shower curtain from sticking to my skin because the space is really really tight! Alas, the water will still splatter onto the toilet bowl area so best to push the floor mat abit further away from the outside of the shower area. I didn't so ended up with a very wet floor mat.

There is no fridge in the room, so get your cold drinks downstairs from Ginett or 25 Degrees, or the 7-eleven from across the street.

Dinner that night was at 25 Degrees Burger, Wine and Liquor Bar as Ginett was fully booked. If you're there before 7pm, there's a 1-for-1 Beer and Bites promo. Hence, we had beer and some bar bites as appetiser. Beer fills us up pretty quickly.

Kronenbourg 1664 Blanc (front) Asahi Black (back) @$19 (1 pint)

Tater Tots Nachos @$8

Onion Rings @$5

But of course, we can't leave without having the famed burgers. Friend ordered #4 while I had the #1. Okay, Number Four is yellowfin tuna, with spicy aioli. But, we were surprised when it arrived. The colour of the patty was unexpectedly greenish! It tasted of crisp outer and dense patty. Unable to discern if it tasted like fish (because am conditioned to think that fish burger ought to taste like fillet-o-fish). It tasted abit like those meatless patty.

Number Four @$14

good 'ol Number One @$14

looking delicious

Number One has beef patty, gorgonzola, bacon and thousand island. Ordered it medium rare and its center came out a bit more rare than expected but didn't mind it because the burger was shared by two.

medium rare

My jeans seams were straining after the meal, so a walk outside to digest is a necessity. 

night view

Didnt stay too long outside since there was work to be done that night.

Morning came by rather quickly the next day.

good morning

witty

As breakfast was provided, we headed down to 25 Degrees again. Better be there by 830am if you'd like a seat indoors.

breakfast menu

I had the American Breakfast while friend opted for the Eggs Special. Loved it that the staff brings you the fruits bowl and croissant the moment you sat down.

breakfast view

nibble on these while you wait for the mains to come

I must say, the croissant was very good. Two croissants were about just right per person! Lovely.

airy and super buttery

look at these

Best croissant from a hotel, by far. Next, was the breakfast eggs. Not the best tasting but I liked everything on my plate. 

Eggs Special

American Breakfast

And, yes... the jeans were straining once more after breakfast. Hahaa!

Overall, while I didn't have the best sleep at Hotel G, I enjoyed the cosy feels in the room and the breakfast was good. Value for money.

Hotel G

Address: 200 Middle Rd, Hotel G, Singapore 188980

Website: https://www.hotels-g.com/singapore/