Sari Ratu Indonesian Food, Authententic Nasi Padang @ 20 Pahang Street

Pahang Street is somewhere near Sultan Street and Baghdad Street. Recommended by Indonesian colleagues and hence, we trooped down for lunch. The place was rather small and packed during lunch hour. Found out that reservations can be made in advance.

Left it in the good hands of my colleagues to order. Waiting time for a table took up to 15 minutes. To order, just go right up to the food counter and pick your choices. You'll be given a paper slip with the items ordered. Payment can be made later, after you have had your meal.

teh botol

For drinks, had the Teh Botol Sosro which is a popular Indonesian drink of sweetened jasmine tea in a bottle. It was a huge bottle at 450ml.

rice is served

The mound of rice is of a smaller portion, which is alright considering we ordered up a storm of side dishes.

chicken in gravy (gulai ayam)

The chicken used at Sari Ratu is kampung chicken, so the meat is slightly tougher. The gravy was smooth and nice to eat with the rice.

sambal telor

potato chips

The red and green sambal were rather spicy but so shiok to eat with the rice. The other stuffs that we ordered included telur dadar (omelette), terung balado (spiced egg-plant), ayam pop (steamed and fried chicken) and sayur pucuk ubi (cassava leaves in gravy). All were nice except for the cassava leaves which was quite rough and old. My colleague was also dissappointed in his ayam pop as it didn't taste as good as usual.

little bit of everything, jemput makan~

Our meal costs about $15 per pax. My Indonesian colleagues like this place quite a bit.

Mak's Noodle 麥奀記 @ Westgate Jurong East

Had something light for late lunch, so was really going to check out the menu only. Then, was approached by the service staff and somehow, ended up trying its beef brisket and tendon noodles. Haha! Subconsciously, I had wanted to give this a try, perhaps?

view of the kitchen

chopsticks and paper napkins in the pull-out drawer of your table

Had heard from others that the noodles here is of a smaller portion. Just nice, since I wasn't very hungry.

Beef brisket and tendon noodle (牛筋牛腩捞面) @$10++

Verdict? The soup was a tad too peppery. The noodle was not well tossed, so one gotta mix it well. That bottle of spicy sauce goes well with the noodles. Sauce had hints of tangerine peel and not too salty. The meat was tender but the tendon could do with more time in the pot. And, addition of some green leafy vegetables would be good.

Dallas Restaurant and Bar @ Sky Garden Suntec City

Sky Garden at Suntec, is a long way to walk from City Hall MRT. There was a period of time when I wanted to try Dallas chicken wings. That period was when there was only one Dallas outlet, at Boat Quay. Then, there came another period of time when people were raving about the grilled corn. I wanted to try that too.

So, chose this restaurant to meet with HS 'coz she's treating. Yay! Moreover, we can use The Entertainer App here. Double yay!

The restaurant offers al-fresco area as well as the cooler, air-conditioned indoor dining. No prize for guessing which one we opted for. Liked the decor, and the indoor dining gave a rather classy feel.

seated by the window

browsing the menu

Happy Hour on weekdays lasts till 8pm. The cocktails which were originally priced at $18 or $19 are going for $12 during the magical hour. Ooh, so I got myself an 'Old Fashioned'.

Old Fashioned @$12++ (HH) - Maker’s Mark, sugar, orange & aromatic bitters

First sip, was like "Oh, whiskey." Haha, what was I expecting? Must have lost my mind for a while. What's the difference between scotch and bourbon? According to wiki, scotch is whisky made in Scotland and bourbon is whiskey made in USA. OoOooh... and bourbon is distilled from corn while scotch is generally from malted barley. So, all bourbon is whiskey but not all whisky is bourbon. OoOOohhh...

So Maker's Mark is bourbon whiskey and whiskey being whiskey, you'll know when you taste one.

For mains, we ordered ribs and cod fish. Food took quite a while to arrive and we thought that the ribs looked quite blackened! Don't be alarmed. A cut through the knife revealed tender flavourful meat, especially when chewed with some fatty bits. Nice.

Baby Back Berry @$30++ (half rack)

slow braised pork ribs that's easy to cut

The miso cod was pretty spot on with its flavours too. Pretty greens of broccoli and sweet peas, quick squeeze of lemon onto the vege and fish, and voila, we are so ready to devour. Miso sauce was very strong in flavours so a small dab of that onto the fish would be more than sufficient. Cod was lovely.

Miso Glazed Cod @$32++ served on a bed of mash, seasonal vege and a dash of miso paste

For desserts, we satisfied one of our curiousity and ordered the chargrilled corn. The corn was delish! A combo of something spicy, cheesy, creamy and savoury sweet. Recommended.

chargrilled corn @$6++ (cut into halves for easy sharing)

The spicy came from the chipotle mayo, and it has parmesan cheese, lime and smoked spices sprinkled onto the corn. Yummeh!

Thank you Hui Shan for the treat!

Rochor Thai @ Novena Regency

This time round, managed to try their weekday lunch sets. Click on this link to view previous visit during dinner time. Their lunch sets during weekdays are priced between $10.80 to $12.80 and a drink of either Thai Iced Tea, Iced Lemongrass Tea or soft drink is included. Noted that the serving size of the drink and dessert is of a smaller portion for the lunch set.

Ordered the Braised Trotters Rice (khao kha moo) and Thai Iced Tea.

Thai Iced Tea (half size for lunch sets)

Braised Trotters Rice (ข้าวขาหมู) @$11.80

The khao kha moo was served with green vege and half an egg. The egg has soft yolk similar to ramen eggs just that the egg wasn't flavoured. The trotters were tender but wished that it had more collageney parts. Abit of salted vege was detected but just a few tiny slices only. The sauce flavour was strong and rice serving was generous.

Also tried the mango sticky rice and I think the set portion @$3 would be half the size of the normal ones. Normal portion is meant for 1 pax.

mango sticky rice ข้าวเหนียวมะม่วง (normal portion) @$8

Service was friendly and reservation is recommended.

Anti:dote Afternoon Tea @ Anti:dote Lounge Fairmont Singapore

Have always known Anti:dote as a place for cocktails, but it is also a place where one could also enjoy an afternoon of indulgence with Anti:dote Afternoon Tea available everyday from Mondays to Thursdays 3pm to 5pm, and Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays will see two seatings; 12pm to 2pm and 3pm to 5pm Priced at $48++ per adult. You will get to choose a starter from two choices (either dim sum or the organic egg), a pot of tea of your choice and a drawer containing savouries and sweets. Top up $15++ for a glass of champagne.

The place is within Fairmont Singapore, just right next to City Hall MRT. So convenient. Went on a Saturday evening and the place was rather busy. Reservation is recommended.

choose your tea

TWG tea is used here. The selections include the popular "Holiday in Paris", "The Bellini" or "Pink Flamingo". Had a taste of those three blends and it was rather floral and sweetish scent. And, guess what I had? The classic French Earl Grey. Ok, I know. Am boring.

Anti:dote Organic Egg

dim sum - scallop siew mai, fried beancurd with fish paste and carrot cake

For the starters, my choice was very clear. The Anti:dote organic eggs. Firm egg custard topped with caviar, ikura and sea urchin. Yums. Would I exchange this for the dim sum? Absolutely not.

Due to the size of our group, many drawers were brought out. Each one gets to share a drawer with his/her favourite person. At max, a drawer holds enough items for 3 pax to share.

the drawers

side profile

So, we scrutinized the drawers. Starting from the bottom. Oh, we found plastic-wrapped crackers and some homemade raspberry jam, lemon curd and Devonshire clotted cream.

cracker and sweet spreads - homemade raspberry jam, lemon curd and clotted cream

Somehow, just by saying Devonshire is getting me into the mood... for scones! Oh my, the parmesan scones was just the perfect item for the afternoon tea. Spread generously with clotted cream and lemon curd, and pop a bite into the mouth. So good. The jam and lemon curd were both very good. Just have it with all three. Triple the enjoyment!

peek-a-boo (chia seed and parmesan scones)

And, before you know it...the scones were polished off, completely.

polished

The second drawer had the savoury items. You will find the Boston Maine Lobster mini-roll in here. The wild mushroom stuffed puff pastry was quite good as well. After the second drawer, suddenly it dawned upon me that there was seriously a bit too many items with caviar and ikura.

savouries

smoked salmon, lemon cheese, ikura

duck confit, foie gras terrine

Only about 5 small items for the savoury but was starting to feel full by now. But, there was one more layer left to conquer. The sweets. About 10 pieces of petit desserts. I like the sound of it. Petit.

petit desserts

mini strawberry cake, vanilla chiboust

The mini strawberry cake was the cutest looking. Reminded me of a ladybird. Haha! Thought it tasted somewhat like a marshmallow~

tuxedo strawberry

The chocolate coated fresh strawberry was another favourite of mine. The chocolate praline was enjoyable as well. One thing that I really didn't like was the pistachio layer, smoked tea cream dessert. No thanks.

pistachio layer, smoked tea cream

traditional Paris Brest

Green Apple Tartlet

 Most said they liked the green apple tartlet except me. But it did intrigued me as I couldn't figure out what was the fruit that sat ontop of the green apple. Looking like a grape but the taste was far from it.

Come early, at 3pm to enjoy the afternoon tea in as leisurely manner as possible. Sip and savour. Enjoy.