龙星光酒楼 @ Jiuxianqiao Lu, Beijing

Located at 21 Jiuxianqiao Lu, Chaoyang District. Here's the address:  朝阳区酒仙桥路21号(兆维大厦对面).

Was there because some of our colleagues were staying at the Ambassador Hotel, so was looking for a place to have our dinner. One of our colleague had earlier suggested to have noodles but my manager just took one look at the noodles place and refused to enter as it looked pretty dingy. At least this restaurant was bigger and looked more comfy.

retro, or not?

dim sum menu

alcohol, anyone?

Didn't try any mao tai (茅台). Instead, we got our usual suan mei tang (plum juice).

two flask of suan mei tang

As usual, we ordered dishes to go with steamed rice.

roast pork and char siew

The char siew and roasted pork dish was served with sugar dip. Not bad.

beef hotplate

stir fried vege

claypot chicken

The vege was very similar tasting to the 帝皇苗, where it is slightly slimy. Beef as usual was tender and tasty. The chicken claypot has tiny tiny pieces of chicken (with bones) but very flavourful.

mountain of rice

claypot tofu with roast pork

oyster egg

claypot pig trotters with lotus root

All the claypot dishes goes well with the rice. But it didn't taste very Cantonese though.

This meal costs less than ¥500 and the portion was more than enough to feed 7 adults.

Fish Mart Sakuraya @ West Coast Plaza

Located at B1 of West Coast Plaza. Just walk straight from the entrance near the taxi area and one can see the shop already.

Shop entrance is via the fish mart. Visited on a weekday for dinner and there were plenty of seats available.

menu

small plates

If you're looking for bento sets during dinner time, then you won't be able to find one here. Sushi don is available though.

hitachino nest white ale (@$8.50)

Happy to see craft beer available here. Hitachino Nest White Ale was yum on a warm night. Taste was light and fruitty.

golden fruitty flavour

For mains, my colleague had the salmon don while mine was the chirashi don.

Chirashi Don (@$14)

thin slice of salmon

consistently thin slices

Chirashi Don has three types of fish, all consistently sliced. Rather thin. Ginger was well pickled but the rice felt somewhat lacking.

asari miso soup (@$5), chuka wakame (@$3) and tori karaage (@$6)

must have some greens

Asari miso soup tasted more of miso than clams. The tori karaage was pleasant and tasty. The thigh meat was firm but not dried out. Hint of ginger.

Service was adequate. Requests for an empty bowl, or an extra glass were acceded to. The only difference was, one was delivered with a smile while the other was done with a doesn't-give-a-hoot look. O..k...

Pay at the cashier when you're done. If not using the towels, then just return it to the cashier.

Imperial Treasure Noodle & Congee House @ ION Orchard (Part II)

Didn't realize that it has been a year since the last visit. Wow. Ok, was there on a weekend and boy, there was already a queue at 1130am.

ready to order

Ordered some dim sum items and friend wanted the pig trotters pot. Pig trotters for brunch? Hmm, what kind of combo is that??

chinese tea (香片@$2++)

One year has passed, and yes, the patrons are all still seated pretty near each other. Quite a few Japanese diners too.

My must-haves for Hong Kong dim sums are siew mai, beef balls and custard bun. Couldn't find the panfried carrot cake on the menu so opted for steamed yam cake. Keke, ok ok. I admit. It was the lap cheong that made me do it! Turns out to be not bad, with enough lap cheong to carry the taste although panfried carrot cake would've been a much preferred choice.

Beef balls were bouncy and tender, and doesn't have too much of the dried tangerine peel (陈皮). In fact, almost none was detected.

steamed siew mai (@$4.80++)

steamed beef balls with vege (@$3.60++)

steamed yam cake (@$3.60++)

steamed custard bun (@$4.20++)

salty sweet lavalicious~

And my friend ordered his exotic combo. These:

beef brisket rice roll (@$6++)

pig trotters pot (@$14++)

If only the beef brisket was more tender....if only the cheong fun was wrapping tender stewed brisket instead of it being 'kosong' and rolled-up...sighs.

The pig trotters were quite soft and collageney (mostly skins). Had a hint of herb flavours. I seriously feel that no one would order this with their dim sum.

The meal costs about $23 per pax. The rice rolls did a pretty good job of filling us up.

Here's a link to first visit.

陕西味道 (Shan Xi Wei Dao) @ Minzuyuan Road, Beijing

Here is the address: 朝阳区民族园路1号唐人街商场1楼(近大润发班车处). Basically, it's located at the Chinatown Plaza, Minzuyuan Road.

inside the shop, order from counter

brinjal rice set (@¥21)

closer view

It does a pretty good version of the 肉夹馍 (rou jia mo). Chose the half/half option where the meat is half lean half fat. Good choice. Nicely juicy with non-dry-out version of the 'bread'.

肉夹馍 (rou jia mo)

half lean half fat

One of our colleague was feeling under the weather, so he ordered chicken soup noodles.

chicken noodles soup set

simple comfort food

But the main attraction of this shop (for us, at least), was a noodle called 'biang biang' noodles. Here's its wiki link. Its name is a word that contain many many words inside. Here's a graphic for illustration as I don't think there's anyone who has the time to write it out...

biang biang noodles

super long piece of mee hoon kueh

sQue Rotisserie & Alehouse @ The Central Clarke Quay

Located at The Central Clarke Quay, 6 Eu Tong Sen Street. The restaurant's outdoor area is pretty large, and we visited on a weekday evening. Their friendly service staff got us a table by the river.

menu

GSS at sQue

Father's Day specials

Happy Hour at sQue happens in two installments. First one ends at 7pm, and the next round begins at 9pm! And, they have an-all-day cocktail promo where one gets 1-for-1 for selected cocktails for under $20.

Got ourselves some beer and deep fried calamari to start with.

pretty, pretty Stella

Calamari Fritte (@$14.50++)

The calamari looked nicer than it tasted, which was unfortunate. The batter was too bland.

liked the red paper napkin

For mains, we had seabass, pork ribs and spring chicken. The seabass dish certainly made an impression on us. For being the smallest plate of main course, and with a high mash-potato to fish ratio. Needless to say, my colleagues who ordered this, were grumbling much...especially when the rotisseries meats came along.

Seabass Florentine (@$24++)

Pork Ribs (@$25++)

tender rib meat, falling off the bone

Spring Chicken (@$18.50++)

plump, tender, sweet drumstick~

The advice is...just stick to the rotisserie items and you'll not be disappointed. The pork ribs has the strongest flavours with well-marinated meat. Goes really well with the drinks.

Personally, I'd think the spring chicken was the most value-for-money. Its taste was mostly unadulterated, with the meat moist from its own juice. The honey mustard glaze on the skin-bits and back-bones was a teaser. Sweet and with some tangy-ness. Just that tiny hint to tease the tastebuds.

wilted spinach and mushrooms

The mushrooms and spinach were pretty tasty. However, spinach was unevenly seasoned with some parts more heavily salted than the rest.

Moscato D'Asti from Piedmont, Italy (@$20.50++ for 2 glasses)

Loved the moscato. Fruitty to the nose and easy to drink. Sweet~

Ordered a couple more finger food to share as we're still drinking. But I was still pretty stuffed from all the chicken!

garlic prawn squer (@$9.50++)

closer view of the prawns

fish fingers of dory strips, served with french fries (@$15++)

 

Ok, rotisserie items still trumps. Eat the garlic prawns with the sweet sauce (that looked like sambal btw...). Won't regret it. Dory strips were kind of bland. Batter problem? The fries that came along with the fish fingers was good though.

At 9pm, sQue will sound the bell to signal the start of Happy Hour Round Two! *Ding Ding*

Hahaha, we tried two more cocktails that was under the 1-for-1 promotion. Tried the Uppercut and Singapore Sling. First time getting acquainted with amaretto, a sweet, almond-flavoured, Italian liqueur. Overall, the cocktail was a very sweet orangey drink with strong whiff of almond. Don't expect too strong of alcohol, though.

Uppercut (vodka, amaretto and orange juice)

Singapore Sling