Alkaff Mansion Ristorante @ Telok Blangah Hill Park

Went there for my cousin's wedding but taxi uncle couldn't find the place given its address as 10 Telok Blangah Green. But luckily, someone was eagle-eyed enough to notice a sign that points to Telok Blangah Hill. Phew.

evening sun

ready for the wedding

Very nice ambiance. Old world charm. Spacious where older folks would mingle with a drink in hand, and the kids running freely with nary a care in the world. Sweet.

dinner shall be served, in a while

The inside of the mansion is as charming as its exterior. High ceiling, and warm furnishing. Service was friendly.

warm bread

Definitely loved the warm bread. Soft and pillowy. The service staff would replenish the basket and we were never without bread. Never.

Fegato d’Anatra

First antipasto, Pan Seared Duck Liver with blackberry/raspberry sauce.

quivering richness

The duck liver was good. Rich and oily. It became better when paired with the soft pillowy bread and a sip of red wine. Yums.

eat, drink (responsibly) and be merry

Next up, Burratina. To be frank, am no fan of this cheese. While many extolled the butteriness of it, unfortunately (and sorry) I just don't get it. It's like a very mild (almost tasteless) cheese with slight creaminess. Hence, the drizzle of good olive oil and the pairing of it with sweet tomatoes, plus a bit of seasoning (salt and pepper) is a must.

Burratina with rocket and tomatoes

Next up, first course of Ravioli.

Raviolio with truffle and mushroom sauce

The ravioli has strong flavours of porcini, with a not so subtle hint of truffles. Charming. Thank goodness for its not so big portion because we were pretty stuffed from all the free flow bread!

For the mains, it was either cod fish or beef short-ribs. Guess which one was my choice.

Atlantic cod with caviar

Beef short-ribs with asparagus and mash potatoes

Beef, of course. The boneless short-ribs wasn't so tender till it falls apart but it was tender enough to bring a smile. Perhaps, the way the meat was cut, the way it was cooked until the satisfactory outcome where the flavours merged and its texture retained that bite yet jaw friendly.

yum yums

To finish off the meal, we had our sweets.

dolce

Likewise, here's wishing my cousin and his wife all the sweet things in life and may they be happy, together, forever.

鸭王 (Duck King / King Roast Duck) @ Minzuyuan Road, Beijing

Here is its address in Chinese: 朝阳区民族园路1号 which translates to 1 Minzuyuan Road, Chaoyang District.

Apparently ranked #399 out of 3901 restaurants in Beijing by Tripadvisor, and it made into Top Ten (#4) Peking Duck restaurants in Beijing based on a 2011 article.

restaurant's facade

cute chopstick holder

As usual, our choice of drink would be sour plum juice (酸梅汤) but this time, we had beer as well. And why not? Local beer is very very wallet friendly in Beijing! Beer brand like Yanjing have very light taste but it's refreshing on a warm night.

local beer

beer in a wine glass?

Happy to say that all the dishes that were on our table, tasted good. Just remember to state, "少盐少油" (shao yan, shao you) which means less salt and less oil, before the service staff sends out the order to the kitchen.

pig trotters

beef hotplate

pork ribs with corn

My senior manager adores the pork dishes (plus lotus roots) while I'd go for the beef. Vegetables was good too. Just the corn that's not agreeable. Don't quite like Beijing corn, because I think its texture is all wrong.

But of course, the highlight would be the Peking Duck, which was served last and rightly so. The portion of it wasn't that big to be shared for our table of 8 pax. If I remember correctly, the price of the Peking Duck was around ¥198 per bird (about SGD40), and it was roasted upon order.

Peking Duck

盐酥骨架 (deep fried bones with pepper and salt)

The duck skin was crackling and has enough oil. But the finale was its bone carcass which we requested for deep fried with salt and pepper (extra charge). Just the right snack for the cold beer.

If not wrong, the entire meal that night (with a couple more dishes that I didn't photograph and included vege, and lotus roots) costs less than ¥800 which was about SGD22 per pax for our group.

康师傅私房厨牛肉面 (Master Kong Chef's Table) @ Minzuyuan Road, Beijing

Located at No. 2 Minzuyuan Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing. According to wiki, 康師傅 (Kang shi-fu or Master Kong) is a brand owned by Tingyi Holding Corp, from Taiwan.

The place is pretty close to the hotel that we're staying at.

shopfront

menu

Specializing in beef noodles, it also has rice option.

original sauce beef rice

half beef half tendon

 

yums

flat noodles

gold medal beef noodles soup

tender beef slices

The small dish of preserved vege helped to give the soup a little lift.

preserved vege

The soup was flavourful but not quite strong. There's vinegar on the table for that added oomph.

black fungus - side dish

dessert

red bean cake

For desserts, we ordered the coconut red bean white cake. It's like a pudding but a little more solid than pudding. Not overly sweet.

The main dish price ranged from ¥26 to ¥36. This place also has set meals and has options to top up for dessert/side-dish and a drink.

There's also a discount card that entitles the user a 12% discount. This card can be bought for ¥10, and comes with two luggage tag.

discount card with luggage tags

CM-PB @ Dempsey Road

CM-PB is actually an abbreviation of Contemporary Melting - Pot & Bar. Now, that's quite a mouthful. Located at Block 7 of Dempsey Road and there's a carpark nearby. How convenient is that.

menu

Beer is prominent here, so we started with that.

Corona @$8++ (HH)

After looking at the beer menu, the best value would be Corona as for the same Happy Hour price, you'll be getting 25ml more. Yeah, cheap thrill...I know. Hahaha!

loved the golden colour

For munchies, there's plenty of choice. The table near us ordered their mains and it looked quite substantial.

truffle fries with ketchup (@$15++)

fries, and more fries!

The fries tasted best when it landed on the table. Piping hot, lovely truffle-y scented and just so good with the ketchup. But after an hour or so, it became rather hard and one would be compelled not to eat it anymore.

Wagyu Cube (@$22++)

nice, juicy meaty cubes

A meatatarian must have her meats! The Wagyu Cubes here was served on a longish looking plate, with lots of greens and sauteed mushroom. Likey likey. The sauce was a tad too salty though but it's ok since we polished off the entire plate. The cubes were slightly chewy but yet tender enough to want to eat more.

Our Mojito (@13++ HH)

Happy Hour (HH) runs till 9pm, and one could save around $3++ thereabouts per drink, so do order early.

粥面故事 @ Minzuyuan Road, Beijing

Located at No. 2 Minzuyuan Road, Chaoyang District of Beijing. This outlet was still open for snacks when we reached the hotel at about 230am in the morning. The other option would be McDonalds but we wanted to try our first local food.

order here

shop interior

waiting for food

It's like an oriental fast food joint that serves porridge, noodles, rice and side dishes. Individual order of rice or noodles costs around ¥10 - ¥20 but top it up a little more to somewhere around ¥25 to get a set that consist of either a drink or a 肉夹馍 (rou jia mo, a kind of chinese burger), and a salad.

梅菜扣肉

delivery is available

肉夹馍 (rou jia mo)

Also tried side dishes like pancakes and vegetable guo tie.

vegetable guo tie (锅贴)

白菜牛肉饼

flat piece of dough with thin spread of beef (oily)

Its rice dishes and century egg porridge with lean meat was quite nice. Average spend per pax would be around SGD5+ for a set meal.