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.

Neighbourhood food: Jurong East

I'm back after a long hiatus. I'd been eating a lot of good food but failed to document them due to sheer laziness. I shall continue my food hunt.

This time round, I'm going to introduce some food stalls with a variety of food.

By bus:
Buses there - Bus 51, 66, 78, 78A, 79, 97, 97E, 143, 176, 197, 333 and 335
Bus stop code: 28431

By train
From Jurong East MRT station: 5-10 mins walk from Exit A

1) 宜家筵 Seafood Restaurant

Fried bee hoon with pig leg and mushroom.- $8

This is one large plate of bee hoon. It tasted a little like the canned pig trotters that can be bought from the supermarket. Maybe they have 2 cans worth of pig trotters in here because the meat portion is pretty generous. It taste pretty decent but not the best I've tasted. They serve better Hor fun and Xin Zhou Bee Hoon.

Szechuan soup - $4.50

The Sze Chuan Soup has a thick consistency and it is appetizing. A little spicy and sour with tofu, carrots, ginger, mushrooms. Pretty nice to dip the dumplings in and I tried it together with the bee hoon (which was a little dry) and it goes well together.

2)鑫鹏拉面小笼包

Here comes my favourite food store. 

Shandong dumpling - 12 pieces for $5

Introducing the must try food here! This stall is opened by the mainland Chinese (PRC) and it tasted really delicious unlike most that tasted really horrendous. There is always queue during dinner time and the Shan Dong dumplings are a must-try.

The dumpling skin is not too thick and I just love it when the soup flows out when I bite it. It is very moist and I love the sweetness of the pork with ginger and vinegar. The meat filling are made with pork and chives.

Fried dumpling - 12 pieces for $5

You can peek through and see the meat in it. This is very juicy and savoury with an extra crispy skin. I just love juicy meat. Give it a go.

Beef Noodles @ Kopitiam IMM

Sorry for the long hiatus. I'm finally back! Hope I can keep this blog running at least for another 2 months. I'm thinking of starting cooking again so watch this space!

I really like this bowl of beef noodles at the kopitiam (Level 2) of IMM. It's a beef speciality stall at the end of the row.

The gravy is not too thick nor watery, just the right consistency. I love the beef balls and the super tender beef slices. It is slightly sweet and salty.





Beef noodles: $4.50

If you happen to be in IMM, you might wanna give this a shot.

Xi Men Ding - Vivocity

Today is Mother's Day so my family and I visited Xi Men Ding (Non-halal) at Vivocity  to try out their dishes. My mum isn't fond of dairy products like cheese so we chose chinese cuisine instead. For non-chinese, Xi Men Ding is actually the name of a district in Taiwan.

Location: Vivocity 1 Harbourfront Walk, #01-51A, Singapore 098585

I tried the homemade barley $2.80 per cup. It taste like those in the kopitiam. Thick and sweet, to my liking. Good but overpriced.

Next is the salted vegetable with tripe soup. $6.90. The taste of the salted vegetable is infuse in the soup with a slight hint of pepper and tripe. Surprisingly good and appetizing.

Grilled fish roe - $17.90 This dish is on the recommended list but it is very deceiving. Unlike the large slices of fish roe we saw on the menu but when it served, it is a pathetic small triangular plate with 8 pieces of thinly slice fish roe. I understand that fish roe are expensive but the pictures are very misleading. My mum says that the radish, spring onion and the fish roe are supposed to be sandwiched together and eaten at one go (which I did). I can't really describe the taste fully but it tasted like crunchy radish with an overpowering spring onion taste in the mouth with slight hints of salty fishy egg yolk to me. I dreaded this dish and my siblings too. I don't know, maybe you will like it.

Stir-fried eggplant with meat sauce - $13.90. This dish goes very well with rice. The meat sauce tasted like fermented beancurd and the eggplant is really soft. I like this dish a lot.

I really like the texture of this dish. Taiwanese fried beancurd - $6.90 Crispy skin and soft beancurd. This dish is actually quite bland but if you dip it in the meat sauce, it is really tasty.

Next is "San Bei" chicken with basil. (三杯鸡) - $17.90. This is recommended on the menu as well. There is a slight sesame oil, wine and soy sauce taste. I didn't really like the texture of the chicken though, it's a little tough. The gravy goes well with the rice. 

French beans with crispy intestines - $9.90 I really like pig intestines but this one is horrible. I think it isn't handled well and there is a very strong pig smell. I only had one and decided to skip this. Yikes. French bean was good though.

One of my favorite dish - Deep-fried oyster. ($13.90) It tasted like those taiwan street snacks. Crispy skin, seasoning with fresh oysters.  If you like to eat oyster omelette, I would recommend this.

"Lion head" signature meatball - $10.90. This reminds me of the movie cloudy with a chance of meatball. 10 bucks worth of meatball with slightly thicken sauce. I love the meatball. A mixture of meat and fats, goes really well with the rice!

I realized we ordered a lot of fried food. Deep-fried prawn with egg yolk. - $19.90 (Four pieces) This is my favorite dish. I love the giant fresh prawn. The white stuff surrounding the prawn is not batter but minced prawn. Very crispy and sweet prawns with salted egg. Must try!

Argh wrong focus! I hope you can see how it looks like despite the failed close-up.

Moving on to the desserts. If you have a sweet tooth like me, you'll probably like this egg pudding - $4.90. I love the soft egg pudding with sweet caramel on top. Absolute delight! I suggest sharing this bowl of goodness as I find it a little cloying after several spoons.

Almond tofu - $4.90. I think the top layer of mango goes really well with the almond tofu. Almond tofu can be a little strong at times but I think this combination with the sour mango goes really well!

After eating the above two desserts, I find the Sweet Taro soup - $4.90 a relatively bland. On its own, it is really delicious. If you love taro, this is a thick stuff of goodness. I suggest eating this first before trying out other desserts as they may overpower the taste of this.

Overall, the food is relatively good. I like the ambiance of the restaurant. Typical family style restaurant with nice paintings on the wall. The above food cost us around $170 for 4 pax. We eat a lot.

Rating: 3.8/5 Penalize for the bad pork dish. Good place to dine.