Ah Yat Abalone Restaurant - Bugis

Location: Hotel Grand Pacific #01-06, 101 Victoria Street, 188018 (Opposite of Bras Basah complex)

My friend and I bought the Groupon deal which cost $45 for 2 pax (Weekday Lunch buffet) inclusive of GST.  (but excludes the order of peanuts, towel and Chinese tea) 

Important things to take note: 

1) Leftover food is chargeable at $5 per 100g and no takeaways are allowed.

2) Reservation is required 

3) Groupon mobile verification is required before the start of buffet

3) Additional payment of $10 nett for peanuts, towel and Chinese tea even if you don't want it.

When we arrived at the place, we were guided to the upper level of the restaurant for the buffet.

Buffet starts 11.15am - 3pm (last order at 2.30pm) We arrived at 11.30am on a Wednesday in the restaurant and there weren't a soul to be found. (except the servers) The crowd started pouring in later around 1230pm.

Peanuts, a pot of tea and wet towels. ( We chose Pu Er Tea)

After all the charges, it cost $27.50 nett per pax for a weekday lunch buffet. We chose from the list of items available on the green sheet and passed it to the server.

Century Egg and Pork Congee

Starting with a bowl of hot porridge to warm up the stomach. This is a small bowl, like those soup bowls from the hawker centres. It is actually better that one not to have all the carbs filling up the stomach. Pretty average tasting though.

Deep-fried Crispy Dumpling with Salad

One of my favourites. Big juicy prawns with hot crispy skin dipped in mayonnaise. Highly recommended.

"Ah Yat" Steamed Shrimp Dumpling

This taste like the usual Har Gow I always have. Big prawns.

Steamed Crystal Dumpling With Chives

The glutinous skin is a little too thick for me but still hot and juicy. Love the chives.

Steamed Custard and Salted Egg Buns

This is a must try. Very rich and well balanced salted egg custard. Not too sweet nor salty and the buns are soft and fluffy. Sadly, I only ate one basket of buns because it fills me up too much.

Steamed Dumpling in Chilli Oil

Loved these babies. The chilli oil is good.

Steamed BBQ Pork Bun - Char Siew Bao

Ordinary Char Siew Bao with thick skin. Very filling.

Baked Mini Egg Tart

The crust is too thick, soft and tasteless. Egg custard filling tasted more like sugar. A big nono for me. 

Steamed Rice Sheet Roll with Shrimp - Chee Cheong Fun

I think Ah Yat really serves good prawns. Anything with prawn in it is good here. Smooth Chee Cheong Fun with appetizing sauce.

Steamed Fish Roe Siew Mai

Finally a decent Siew Mai with real filling! I really dislike Siew Mai with minced up fillings with unidentifiable taste. Fresh chunks of prawn and pork within so it is really worth the try.

Steamed Pork Ribs With Black Bean Sauce

Pork ribs are served with chunks of yam. 

Steamed ShangHai Dumpling

This basket of Xiao Long Bao is disappointing. The pork filling is mushy and watery. Why would you place a slice of carrot under it? Maybe it is just me but I tasted better from Canton Paradise so this is not that fantastic at all.

To sum it up, I think the dim sum buffet is value for money only if you can eat a lot to make your $27.50 worthwhile. Servers are pretty friendly and efficient. (maybe because we were the first) I'll definitely recommend trying the Deep-fried Crispy Dumpling, Salted Egg Custard Bun and Steamed Fish Roe Siew Mai.

Chiso Zanmai - Clarke Quay

I went to Chiso Zanmai on a Monday afternoon with some of my friends. 

6 Eu Tong Sen St, 059817 (The Central #02-17)

Located at Soho 1, at the end of a corner. It can be a little hard to find but it is pretty close to Goods of Desire on the second level.

Adults: $14.99++

Free flow drinks $1.99++ 

We spent $20 nett per person for a lunch buffet from 12-3pm. I would recommend a weekday lunch because it is cheaper than the dinner buffet and there isn't much of a crowd.

The place is huge. The food counters serves a variety of cooked and raw food. 

The drinks bar serves free flow instant coffee, tea and soft drinks.

There aren't exactly a lot of variety of sushi but nonetheless delicious.

Got some chicken and eggs for the hot pot.

There are also free flow pork and beef shabu shabu available.

Okonomiyaki, Potato Croquettes and Vegetable Tempura. I would recommend the potato croquettes. Very creamy potatoes and crisp batter!

The cooked food available are pretty ordinary so I would recommend you guys to eat more from the hot pot!

Ramen and Udon noodles are available.

If you love spicy broth, go for the Tom Yum soup base. It just makes all the ingredients 10 times more delicious. Tom Yum ramen is great!

Each person is entitled to a $5 portion worth of sashimi (Around 6 slices with kelp  so remember to collect it near the cotton candy area.

Time for some dessert. Soft serve ice cream is available with toppings like raisins, marsh mallows, cornflakes and syrups like chocolate and caramel. 

*I tried putting soft serve in root beer and it was awesome! 

You can also find mochi, chocolate brownies, cheese cakes, fruits and other sweet treats.

Make your own cotton candy time.

Check out this cool cotton candy machine!

I read a lot of reviews that the variety of the food is limited but for me it is a great deal considering that it is $20 for so much food! I definitely think I ate more than $20 worth of food and I will be back for a second visit.

Neo Garden Catering

I just moved in a new house so my family had a mini housewarming. We had a pretty good experience the last time when they catered for my birthday party so I decided to try ordering with them again. (Since I'm the one in charged) This time round, a different menu.

*This is a review, I'm not sponsored by Neo Gardens!

Here was what we ordered:
Asian - Neo's Simplicity Package A $10.99*/$11.99 per Pax for 9 courses (Min:40 Pax)

1)1/2 Sin Chow Mee Hoon and 1/2 Thai Pineapple Rice (They allow us to split into two different dishes since we ordered more than 45pax )
2)Loh Han Vegetable
3)Sweet & Sour Fish
4)Curry Chicken (+ $0.50)
5)Spring Roll
6)Sotong Ball
7)Mini Chocolate Puff
8)Almond Jelly W Longan
9)Lime

The online ordering experience is pretty good. The customer service is really good - I called to enquire about the warmers and stuff and the sales person that called me to confirm the buffet is patient and friendly

Menu Information 

• Complete table layout with skirting and warmers 
• Full set of disposable wares & serviette provided 
• Transportation fee of $45 per trip (Free for 60 persons and above per trip) 
• An additional surcharge of $5 will apply for delivery to offshore areas (Sentosa and Jurong Island) and central area denoted by the first 2 digits of the postal code: Robinson – 01, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08; Marina Square – 03, 17; Orchard 22,23; Brash Basah 18, 19 
• Buffet set-up at any landed property will be done at ground level 
• Extra charges will be applicable for Buffet set-up on other levels of the landed property (Please note that we will not be held responsible for any damage during the set-up) 
• Increment of order must be in multiple of 5pax 
• Members’ price and promotion are applicable only for buffet orders confirmed at least 72 hours in advance. Prices are subjected to GST charge 
• Food is best consumed within 3 hours We reserve the right to change the dish to another of equivalent value without prior notice, due to seasonality.

My mum likes the table set up because it is pretty neat with fake flowers.

Thai Pineapple Rice topped with chicken floss.

This dish was recommended by Neo Gardens and they mentioned that it goes well with the curry. The rice grains are not sticky. Raisins, peas,egg and other ingredients add to the texture of the rice. Not too salty and it does go well with the curry chicken gravy.

Sin Chow Mee Hoon. My relatives cleared a larger portion of thai pineapple rice than the bee hoon. Some plain tasting bee hoon with vegetables but it goes with the curry chicken.

Loh Han Vegetable

A mix of vegetables like cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, fungus and more. Taste like those usual mix vegetables. A little green is good.

Sotong balls are pretty springy.

Sweet and sour fish.

They don't pour the sauce on top of the fried fish. Instead, they have two containers of sauce for us to dip. I like it this way, so that the fish don't turn out soft and soggy. It is slightly crispy and goes well with curry.

Spring rolls. I don't really like spring rolls but my mum wanted them. These were okay.

Curry chicken - recommended by Neo Gardens. One of my favouite. If you are ordering the buffet, be sure to order the curry chicken. I love the thick and fragrant coconut curry with tender chicken. Potatoes are soft. This was not overly spicy.

Mini chocolate puff - These puffs came chilled.

I love the chocolate center. Creamy and rich and sweet chocolate.

Almond Jelly with Longan. I have tasted better almond jelly but these were not that bad.


Rating: 3.9/5

I am very satisfied with the customer service and they arrived earlier to get the set up ready by the time specified. Very good time management. Their food that came warm and the dessert chilled so kudos to that  (This probably because their kitchen is located in the west side, which is pretty near my new house.) Warmers really kept the food warm throughout. I like how effort were put in from the decorations and skirtings to the garnishing.

Things to take note:
The prices are not inclusive of 7% GST.
You need to acknowledge the bill sent to your email account by replying through email or fax.

Food wise, average food but excellent curry. I guess it is pretty much the buffet standard. Definitely fresh ingredients. I recommend the curry chicken and chocolate puff.

You might want to check out their website here

Wavve @ Orange Tee Building

So I decided to try out the groupon deal at Wavve Grill and Chill with a friend of mine.

Location: 430 Toa Payoh Lorong 6 Level 1 - 01 Orange Tee Building Singapore 319402

Price: The Juztoday groupon deal is $28 exclusive of service charge and gst. (around $4.75)

Timing: 11-3pm (That means you have to leave by 3pm) only for weekends.

We had to sit outside because something went wrong with our reservations but it wasn't too bad. It is slightly windy although the aircon in the restaurant was still much better.

First of all, there isn't much variety of choices available and the food below are pretty much what was being offered on that day but the food are actually quite savory. They have free flow drinks but there are only 2 to choose from. Sprite or Coke.

On this plate, grilled dory fish, scrambled eggs, creamy cauliflowers and hashbrowns. A pretty heavy breakfast. Just the usual, nothing much to comment. However, what I do like is the dory fish. Very well seasoned and tender.

Grabbed a plate of salad with thousand island sauce and corn, sushi (Only 3 types: Ebi,  Uramaki and Inari), potato salad, chicken, penne pasta. Sushi is good but I couldn't find my salmon sushi I saw on Juztoday. Sigh* Anyway, the vegetable salad is fresh. I like the potato salad - very creamy and the potatoes are just nice, not too hard, not too soft. The chicken is very tender and was chopped by a chef at the buffet counter. 

At this point, we started noticing there are a lot of carbohydrates like sushi rice, fried rice, fried silver needle noodle (a.k.a lao shu fen), garlic bread and spaghetti that is making us really full. Here is some fried silver needle noodle, pork chops, roasted pork, fried rice, garlic bread pizza. All these tasted okay but the pork chops are a little tough.

More chicken. Creamy mushroom penne. You can choose from penne or spaghetti and the chef will cooked for you and it will be served to your table. The sauce is really good. At first the penne was a little hard but becomes slightly softer when we left it to sit at a corner for a while.

They do serve soup. This mushroom soup tasted like campbell soup but nonetheless good.

Dessert! There are fruits and some red dates qing tang but we didn't grab them. A little too full. We had the chocolate mousse and tiramisu.  The dessert is not served in minicups as shown on the Juztoday website. There are also no fruit tarts available. I scooped these yummy from a square bowl. However, I must say the dessert is really awesome. I love the mousse. Very rich and thick cocoa. Bitter sweet so I guess this is the real deal.  The tiramisu is really creamy and I love the sponge cake that is soaked in coffee. Really delicious.

Rating: 3.6/5 

I couldn't find some of the food displayed on the Juztoday website so honestly I'm a little disappointed. However, I would still recommend going there though, considering the fact that it was just a mere $16++ for so much food. The dessert makes it pretty worth it to go back again. The ambiance is kinda chill and I like the fact that it isn't too packed and there are many seats left. Some thing you see less often in this super packed country.