Joe's Kitchen @ Bukit Merah

Everyday, on my way to work, I will pass by this place. From the bus, the shop's name was quite prominent as the lettering on its awning were huge. Located opposite Alexandra Hospital, and nearby you'll see an OCBC bank.

Went with a colleague to have lunch, and we reached there at about 1215pm. To our surprise, the place was empty. No other customers except us. Hmmm...

menu

interior

glass door, and outside view

We ordered mango salad, tom yum soup, green curry, prawn cake, stuffed chicken wing and pandan chicken. For drinks, I had thai iced tea.

thai iced tea

Service was brisk, and the items were delivered in succession pretty quickly. Probably because we were the first customer of the day. I felt more at ease once the other customers began to stream in... Mixture of demographics; a group of middle-aged uncle and aunties, a group of Korean ladies, a caucasian boy eating with his local friend and a group of working adults.

mango salad

with peanuts, raw onions and cuttlefish

Mango salad was a mixture of sour and sweet mangoes. It has raw onions, peanuts and cuttlefish. The cuttlefish was chewy, and perhaps the dish would taste even better if the chewy cuttlefish was replaced with small anchovies for extra crunchiness. Nevertheless, the mango salad whets the appetite and we were ready for more.

green curry (chicken)

long beans and brinjals, and tender chicken

The green curry gravy was rather bland. The vegetables were soft, and the chicken was tender. The small bowl was enough to feed 2 pax.

seafood tom yum soup

mushrooms, cuttlefish and prawns

The tom yum soup was good! Tasty and with the right sourness and spice.

stuffed chicken wing

prawn cake

Liked the prawn cake. Fresh and springy on the inside and crunchy on the outer part. Tasted even better when dipped into the chili sauce provided. However, the stuffed chicken wing, was just so-so.

pandan chicken

boneless chicken

The pandan chicken was quite disappointing. The meat was a little bit dry and not as flavourful as expected. The prawn cakes fared much better in terms of taste and texture.

All in all, the meal costs about $34 for 2 pax.

Fika Cafe @ Arab Street

Fika Cafe, located at the corner of Beach Road and Arab Street. Can't miss it. But parking could be a problem during lunch hour. Serves Swedish halal food. It's a cosy cafe, and for my maiden experience, we got the upstairs dining section as we went in a large group.

homely ambience

cosy furniture and fixtures

table decor

menu

Think Swedish and we'll naturally think of meatballs... Wanting something familiar yet different, I chose the Swedish Pannbiff, which was basically beef patties (like hamburger patties) doused with cream sauce and served with mash potato, salad greens and lingonberry jam.

Swedish Pannbiff

What's a lingonberry jam? Hahaa, I wiki'ed it and it's a staple food in Scandinavian cuisine. Here's the link to the info. The beef patties were moist on the insides and goes well with the cream sauce, and lingonberry jam. The mash potato was a little dry and probably needed a dash of pepper, butter and salt. It's also a very filling dish.

closer look at lingonberry jam

beef patties and cream sauce, yums

Besides meatballs, the service staff said that their Swedish Hash is also another bestseller. So two of friends ordered it, and it came looking good! It has a sunny side up egg, some salad greens, potatoes and beef cubes and beet root slices.

Swedish Hash

But I thought the beef cubes were rather chewy! The mains here starts from $15.90++ onwards. They do have daily (Mon-Fri) set lunches at $17.90++, and it has a selected main (for that day), a soup and a dessert. Quite a good deal. They had seafood pasta in tomato based cream sauce on the day of our visit, and I tried a sampling of it. The sauce was good (sweet and tangy), but albeit a little watery.

The place was bustling during weekday lunch, so a reservation would be good if you're planning to visit. Take note that iced-water here costs 50 cents.

Cafe Indulge @ The Cathay

Located at B1 of The Cathay. This restaurant is next to the popcorn shop, and near the Japanese restaurant. They have premium set dinner, priced at about $23++ and it has a starter, a soup, a main course and a drink. Quite a good deal if you can eat that much.

menu

interior of the restaurant

seats

Drinks are priced from $3.50 onwards. They have mocktails from $4, and wine (housepour) from $9.

orange juice @$3.50 per glass

The main course here comes with 2 side dishes. I ordered a lamb shank braised in red wine sauce and for side dishes; french beans and corn. Didn't opt for any potato as I wasn't feeling very hungry. The dish came out looking good. Presented on a elongated plate.

lamb shank braised in red wine sauce

tender lamb

sweet corn

The lamb shank was good. The meat was tender and yet, firm to bite. Enjoyable. But the side dishes fell short of expectation. French beans were hard to bite as the side stem was not peeled off. The sweet corn were limp and soft.

Main course price ranges from $10++ onwards. If you order ala-carte a main course and a drink, it'll set you back at about $20 per pax.

Gurney Drive @ Jubilee Entertainment Complex (AMK)

Located at Jubilee Entertainment Complex, Level 1. Gurney Drive, the name of the famous foodie stretch in Penang, Malaysia. It's been ages since I've last visited Penang, so decided to give this a try.

menu

inside the shop

The shop has an 'old town' vibe to it. Ample seats, bright and airy. Ordered the Penang prawn noodles (@$5.90++) and a cup of kopi (@$1.40++). 

Penang prawn noodles

kopi

The coffee was at best, lukewarm. It has a very strong milk taste that I don't quite like. The prawn noodles came with 2 medium sized prawns, a piece of pork ribs, few slices of pork and some slices of fish cake. Good amount of taugeh, kangkong and noodles. 

The soup, although tasty, was not wow. It did not excite the taste bud as much as I thought it would. Perhaps, if the soup was a little bit higher in temperature, then it would have been more enjoyable. Quite a hassle to eat the prawns with shells intact. Kudos though to the service staff to give an extra plate to place the prawn shells. The pork slices were quite tough.

If I ever visited this place again, I will not be ordering the above 2 items.

Baguette The Viet Inspired Deli @ Square 2

Located at Square 2, Level 2, we kinda stumbled upon this place. Was thinking of having something light for dinner, so decided to give it a try.

One can top-up $3.80 to get a drink and a side dish to go along with the bread. However, to get the Vietnamese drip coffee, one will need to add another dollar. The side dish, can choose either cakes, sushi bread or summer roll. We wanted to get 4 inch bread but apparently, they ran out of it. So we chose a 6 inch grilled pork baguette, top up to make it a set, and add another drink. This feeds 2 not so hungry ladies. We chose summer roll as the side dish, and for drinks, we had soda chanh with plum and a lemongrass soda.

soda chanh with plum

summer rolls

The soda chanh with plum was very likeable. Slightly sweet, sour and salty and a little fizzy. A real nice cooler. The lemongrass drink reminds me of spa.. mild and tranquil.

The summer rolls has lots of of greens in it. It has lettuce and mint leaves. Must eat it with the sauce. Sweet, tangy and garlicky!

refreshing rolls

sauce for summer rolls, loaded with garlic

baguette

6 inch grilled pork baguette (@$6.20), unwrapped

The bread was tasty, but the meat seemed too little. Liked the pickled carrots, and chili. All the ingredients complemented each other well. Not sure how it's done in Vietnam, but perhaps can have more butter on the bread? Or some sauce? It was kinda dry.

They have loyalty card and you get a stamp for every $6 purchase. 

loyalty card

This shared meal costs us $11.90 in total.