Sunday, December 14, 2014

Bornga @Star Vista

Had lunch at Bornga for Korean BBQ for the first at Star Vista.  We ordered Woo Sam Yeop, which is a thinly sliced beef, and Samgypupsal, which means pork belly in simple English :), 200g each.

I thought with 400g of meat for the two of us, it might not be sufficient to fill our stomachs.  However, I was surprised.  They gave us plenty of greens, lettuce, chili, etc. If you worry about a healthy diet, at least these greens will help lessen the whatever bad effects BBQ food will have on your body.


And quite a number of sauces and sides to go with our meat.


Here are the meats we ordered in their raw form.

WooSamYeop ($28.00 for 200g)

Samgypupsal ($22.00 for 200g)

Wondering how you are going to get the best of the meat?  Don't worry, the service staff will do the job for you.  The staff skillfully BBQ the meat for us.  The woosamyeop is just nice, one minute more will be too much, one minute less will be not fully cooked.


Compared with the woosamyeop, the pork belly is less impressive in its quality.  I don't know where they source their pork belly, the skin was quite tough, which tasted like rubber.

If you lose a bit of appetite for consuming too much meat, their seaweed soup is there for you to enhance your appetite.  It was a bit mix of sweet and sour.  After drinking it, your saliva will come back and you will feel like your stomach can take on much more :)  And there is no additional charge to this soup.

Last but not least, your finishing 'dessert'.  My friend said it had 5 different tastes, sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and ...?


In terms of service, the waiter who did the BBQ for us was good.  For the others, I think many of them are either very new, or just temp staff, so they are not as professional as they should be.  It is a common problem to almost all mid-class restaurants.  It is also a price we pay for the tighter immigration policy.

Friday, December 12, 2014

So Pho @NEX

Discovered this restaurant for Vietnamese food at NEX.  The name is interesting, So PHO.  PHO, as I understand it, is a Vietnamese word for noodle with soup.  It pronounces like 'far'.  That's the reason why they call the restaurant So PHO (far), and their menu says:  So PHO (far) so good!


The deco of the restaurant is mixed Chinese and Vietnamese.  The cultures of these two countries are inseparable.  Cultures always interact with each other, and influence each other.  It is never meaningful to forcefully exclude one particular culture out from another.



We ordered the summer spring roll with prawn and chicken to share.

Summer Spring Roll with Prawn & Chicken ($4.80)

I must say I like it very much.  The lemongrass brings out the freshness in the filling, which consists of rice noodle, cucumber, chicken and red pepper.  Dip it into the accompanying sour plum sauce, the taste is further enhanced, your taste buds are activated and ready for a good meal.

My main course is slice beef noodle soup.

Slice Beef Noodle Soup ($8.80)

Vietnamese beef noodle is famous for its clear soup.  The soup base is clear yet it still retains all the taste.  The beef is thinly sliced, and cooked by the heat of the soup itself.  The soup is spiced up with spring onion and onion.  And I put in the bean sprouts, lemongrass, and some chili.  All these healthy, natural spices make the soup more delicious, more enjoyable.

I would say it is one of the nicer places to enjoy Vietnamese food here in Singapore.

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Carousel@Royal Plaza on Scotts - 2nd Visit

It was my second visit within half a year to this buffet restaurant.  As usual, they have a large spread of seafood.  Crayfish, prawns, flower crab, hairy crab, mussels, clams, snails.  There are too many choices.  No oyster or king crab, though.  That's reserved for the dinner crowds.





The Japanese corner has plenty of choices of sushi, sashimi and Japanese noodles such as soba for you to choose.




If you don't like raw food, or cold food, they have cooked food for you too.  For cooked food, you have the choice of western, Chinese,  and Indian.  My personal favorite is the cooked salmon.  The meat was tender, it really just melt in your mouth.





No buffet is complete without dessert.




You think you have seen all, they still have fruit stations, chocolate fondue, yogurt, salads, as well as choices of expressio, cappuccino, coffee and tea.

I think this buffet so far the best value for money buffet I have ever had in Singapore.  For a Monday lunch, the whole restaurant was full.  Luckily they designed their seating sensibly so you won't feel too cramped.  However, I did notice there was some deterioration of seafood quality compared with my last visit, which was a Saturday lunch.

There is a 10% discount to most of the credit cards, so basically you can save on your service charge.