Restaurant – Page 3 – Bradley's Old Fashioned Weblog

Say Cheeze, Tampines 1

December 30, 2009September 4, 2021 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

My wife and I finally got around to trying this place out. I’d actually decided not to eat there because the decor is hideous. I mean, I want to be nice, but there’s really no excuse for how horribly ugly the place was decorated. So, I’d written it off. It didn’t look that appealing. I know someone is thinking something ‘cheezy’ about books and covers, but when it comes to food, appearance is important.

So, I never really paid attention to the place until about a week ago when someone I know told me the food there is good. A few days later we happened to be in Tampines 1 and realized it was time for dinner, so we started thinking about where we wanted to eat. Then I remembered what the guy had said about Say Cheeze and we decided to give it a shot.

When we first glanced over the menu we weren’t that impressed but we couldn’t think of anywhere else to eat so we sat down and ordered. We were very surprised. I wish I’d brought my regular camera. These are just from my iPhone.

The dishes we ordered had an upgrade ‘combo’ deal. For 5.90 SGD (4.90 on weekdays) we got a drink and a choice of soup. The add-on price seemed kind of high until we saw the soups.

My wife’s minestrone soup was very, very good. She let me try it. Seems like I forgot to take a picture of it, but it was really thick and had pieces of pasta and vegetable in it.

I asked for the cream of mushroom soup. It wasn’t watered down at all. It was also very thick and could’ve been a light lunch by itself if it came with a piece of bread.

The soups were a real treat. They reminded me of the soups we used to get at OrganiCafExperience in Century Square’s basement level, before it closed.

The main dishes:

My wife's mushroom stuffed ravioli. — My wife’s mushroom stuffed ravioli.

The sauces were delicious and the servings were just the right size. I can’t believe how good the food is there, considering the way the place looks and the relatively low cost of the meals. We’ll definitely be going back!

Trattoria Italian Restaurant at 313 @ Somerset

December 22, 2009September 4, 2021 Bradley Farless1 Comment

A few months ago I was complaining that I hadn’t been able to find decent pizza in Singapore, but I think that quest has finally ended.

You may be thinking that Singapore has Pizza Hut, but that doesn’t do it for me. Even in the US I think Pizza Hut is gross. The stuff is just too oily. You shouldn’t be able to see grease dripping from your slice of pizza when you pick it up. I prefer pizza that’s lighter, where you can taste the flavors of the toppings, not just the grease.

So, I’ve been sampling around, trying to find good pizza.

We did try Pizza Hut once when I first got here but, besides the fact that it’s Pizza Hut, the servings are small compared to how much they charge. It feels like a rip off for poor quality food. Also, they have a lot of bizarre (to me anyway) topping combinations, but last I checked (which was quite a while ago so don’t hang me) they were missing some of the traditional ones that I enjoy. They also didn’t have plain pepperoni. They had chicken pepperoni (I think it was), but not the real pepperoni.

Canadian pizza isn’t too bad. It’s like the Domino’s of Singapore. It’ll do in a pinch! Still, it wasn’t quite up to par.

We also tried pizza in the New York New York restaurant. I was hoping that a restaurant named after a city that has incredible pizza would live up to its name, but I was disappointed. It was incredibly oily and very bland. The sauce was spread so thin it might as well have not been there at all. I didn’t even finish it.

New York New York Restaurant’s Pizza

In the US, I’d gotten spoiled on great pizza from pizzerias in New York City. Notably, Mariella’s. That stuff is just good! Good enough that it draws celebrities sometimes. Plus it’s a good price. For about 3 bucks, depending on what you order, you get a slice of pizza that’s so big you almost have to hold it with two hands. Here’s a photo:

Mariella’s Pizza in New York City

When I wasn’t in New York City I would go for thin crust pizzas from Papa John’s. Depending on what toppings you order, they are really good and the cheese, garlic butter, and marinara dipping cups you can get along with your pizza are great.

Sunday my wife and I were checking out 313 @ Somerset, the new mall on Orchard Road. On the ground level just across from the escalator that leads down into the MRT station is a restaurant called Trattoria. It’s very nice looking. The decor is very well done and the menu looked good, so before heading home we stopped by to give it a try.

Getting seated was a bit confusing. The staff is obviously new. When we first walked in I asked the first person I saw if we have to go to the counter to order. He directed us to a register. When I got there the cashier asked me for my receipt. I told him we hadn’t ordered yet and we were then directed to a table.

Complimentary appetizer at Trattoria

After that, the confusion didn’t end. We ordered a pizza and two raspberry Italian sodas. While waiting on our order, another server came by and dropped off a plate with a complimentary appetizer. It was good and it reminded me of Italian restaurants in the US. In the US you’re typically served a loaf of fresh bread and a type of butter while waiting for your meal. Sometimes it’s plain butter, sometimes cinnamon, honey, or even garlic. It depends on where you go. What we were served was a bit different but still a pleasant surprise. After we finished it a third server took the plate and a few minutes later a fourth server dropped off another plate of the appetizers. I think they didn’t realize we’d already been served an appetizer. I’m not complaining that I got something free, just noting that the servers were a bit unorganized.

Raspberry Italian Soda, before stirring

Shortly after that one raspberry Italian soda showed up at our table along with a receipt marked with one pizza and one soda. I had to get up and tell a server that we’d ordered two, not one. It took about 10 minutes for the second soda to be prepared, despite the fact that only four tables in the restaurant were in use. The soda showed up at the same time as our pizza, but we never got our receipt back which made the check-out process a bit more annoying later.

Trattoria’s Pepperoni Pizza

The pizza more than made up for the questionable service. The crust was thin and crispy along the edges, which is just how I like it. A regular crust pizza gets you full on bread and you can’t enjoy as much of the sauce or toppings! The sauce on this pizza is what stood out the most. It tasted really fresh. It wasn’t sweet and they didn’t overdo the seasoning. Typically I hate an aftertaste, but all the way home on the MRT I savored the lingering taste of that pizza sauce. The pepperoni on the pizza tasted a lot like what I’m used to in the US as well. The pizza was light, with a balanced amount of toppings and was a great overall dish. I could’ve eaten the whole thing by myself and still craved for more.

I can’t really hold the shaky service against Trattoria. It’s a brand new restaurant and the servers looked inexperienced. They weren’t even serving everything on the menu yet. Also, it was about 10:30 PM. The end of the day is always kind of rough in a restaurant. I’m sure that aspect of the Trattoria dining experience will improve over time.

That aside, the pizza was excellent. The raspberry Italian soda tasted great! I’m curious as to how their other dishes taste, but I’ll probably just go back again for more pizza. Thanks for satisfying my craving, Trattoria! See you soon!

Oh and by the way, the Vespa on display is a really nice touch!

McCurry and McBath

December 2, 2009April 9, 2023 Bradley Farless1 Comment

Both of these photos were taken in Kuala Lumpur.

I saw this McCurry while riding a bus and had to rush to snap a photo of it. This place is owned by a local business man and I remember reading about an 8 year legal battle they went through with McDonald’s, who sued them for trademark infringement. In the end, the Malaysian courts ruled in favor of McCurry, which only makes sense. I’m sure the name of this store was inspired by McDonald’s but how can you trademark the “Mc”? Though not common to Malaysia, “Mc” is a common part of names.

I guess this place followed suit and took it a step further by equating the “Mc” with an American Standard. I didn’t realize there was an American standard for McBaths or McToilets, but if you’re looking for McBathroom Fixtures this is the place for you.

Marché at Vivocity: Mediocre and Expensive

October 11, 2009 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

About three weeks ago my wife and I went to Marché at Vivocity. We’d seen the place quite a few times while at the mall and while passing through on our way to Sentosa, and we always thought about stopping there to eat but we never did. It’s a long way from where we live in Pasir Ris too so I’m not really surprised that it took us this long to make it down there.

Marché is a Swedish Swiss restaurant that serves food in a style similar to Manpuku, with in-store credit cards that you use when ordering and carry to the check-out register and all. It appears that cows are their mascot. These guys are sitting in front of the restaurant close to the door you exit from after paying. It’s a nice way to draw the eye and attract customers.

When we first walked into the restaurant there was a waiting area filled with people. Our wait wasn’t that long and the hostess at the desk was very quick, pleasant and professional. She had on a pretty neat outfit too. It looked like a milk-maid get-up. The place was starting to get crowded and when we showed up I think they opened up another seating area because they led a bunch of us into the restaurant at once to a seating area in a corner. It was way back past where the register is. It was nice because it was private, but it was also hard to get in and out of because of the line of people waiting to pay.

The first thing we did was walk up to the salad area and order a “medium” salad. The lady behind the counter then handed us a dish the size of a coffee cup saucer, smiled and turned away to work on something else. We looked at the plate in disbelief. Seriously, I’ve seen coffee come on bigger saucers. For 9.80 I expected more than that. It’s salad after all, not filét mignon. Then we saw the salad bar itself. What you see in the picture is it. That’s all. For a European restaurant their salad bar was lacking and didn’t even include things that are normally found on a salad, like mushrooms, tomatoes, bacon bits, croutons, shredded cabbage, kidney beans… In short the selection was severely limited given the amount we paid for our tiny medium plate.

The biggest let-downs was that besides having a small selection some of the items were running low and they hadn’t bothered to refill them. The “Fresh Sprout” (alfalfa) plate was empty. The lettuce was also pretty gruesome looking. I asked for both to be refilled with fresh food. The girl either didn’t understand completely or ignored me. She did put out more sprouts but left the lettuce as it was.

In an effort to spite the small plate size we overloaded it by going vertically where we couldn’t go horizontally. It wasn’t too bad, but … it just wasn’t 9.80 good. If you do go to Marché I recommend just avoiding the salad bar entirely.

For a few weeks before going to Marché I’d had this craving for pork chops and when we got there we saw that you could chops freshly grilled so we both went for it. You can see the meat before you choose it. They have it set out in pans over ice and you pick what you want by pointing to it. The cuts were pretty good sized. I think it was around 10 bucks for the meat. The potatoes you had to order extra, which was a bit odd. Everything there is bought by the item though, down to the buns or breadsticks.

This is probably the best thing to come of the whole trip. I’d never noticed this drink before going to Marché, though afterwards I saw that it’s stocked at the Shop N Save near where we live. It’s really good, and reminds me of Ginger Ale from back in the US. Since having it at Marché we’ve bought a few cases so we can have them with dinner.

I can’t say that Marché is bad, but it’s simply mediocre. The customer service is good. The ambience is comfortable. The food just wasn’t up to par though, especially not with the prices they were charging. I have to say though that my opinion is a little biased because we wound up getting sick later that night. After eating at Marché my wife and I both got headaches, felt lethargic in a recovering from an illness sort of way, and we had stomach… issues. So, Marché is one restaurant we won’t be returning to. At least, we won’t be returning to this one.

Another highlight of our evening was this delicious treat! I can’t remember what it’s called exactly. Double Brownie something maybe? It’s from the Ben & Jerry’s restaurant in Vivocity. It’s a tad expensive at 14.40 but it’s good for two people (maybe 3 since it was served with 3 spoons?) and is incredibly delicious! I suppose it depends on what types of ice cream you pick to go in it but this one came out great. I think I chose Cookies and Cream and New York Fudge Chunk. Just looking at this is making my mouth water. I’m a sucker for ice cream and baked goods!

The Food in Phuket (Part 1)

September 4, 2009April 9, 2023 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

One of the best parts about this trip was running around town finding different foods to eat. While we were there we ate at quite a few different restaurants, not all of them Thai. I think we probably could have found better food if we’d gone to a less touristy part of Thailand, but we made do with what we had available to us.

We weren’t sure where to go on the first day we were there so we wound up walking around quite a while. We finally wound up eating in the restaurant where we took the cat photos in the previous post. I still don’t know the name of the place. We couldn’t find it again. It was nice though:

The sad thing is that the food from this place was great, and I’d liked to have gone back. Here are some pictures of the dishes:

This one is yellow curry chicken. It was a lot better than I expected. In the photo, the chicken somehow came out looking crisp, but it was actually tender. There was no coating, other than the curry sauce. I think it looks like that because it was torn by hand before being cooked. The noodles were al dente. I liked that. I can’t stand mushy noodles. Oh, and she let me choose how spicy I wanted it, so I went with ‘medium’ to be on the safe side!

This dish is called sukiyaki. My wife says it’s actually a Japanese dish, but she wanted to try out the Thai version of it. She didn’t have any complaints.

Later that evening we were looking for a snack when we saw something familiar. It was a hawker style eating area. There were only two stalls and a seating area, but they were serving chicken & rice and roast pork & rice. We decided to give it a try to see how it compared with what we were used to eating in Singapore (those are very common dishes in Singapore but in Singapore the names exclude the ‘&’).

It seems to be pretty much the same, except there are two choices (though extra small portions) of vegetable and a quail egg. Instead of a broth soup, there was a dip for the meat. The table also had other sauces, chilis, and dips to choose from. It was significantly cheaper though at 40 baht (1.17 USD / .82 EUR / 1.69 SGD). The same meal is about twice as much in Singapore, probably due to import fees placed by companies and the government.

Even later that same night, we decided to go out for a late dinner (at midnight) and some beers! So, we stopped at one of the street restaurants. These places set up every evening and pack up everything when they close, including tables, chairs, and cooking equipment. The food was better than I expected it to be.

This is chicken, pork, and beef satay with peanut sauce. It was hard to tell the difference between the three meats, and I teased my wife that maybe it was all cat.

This was grilled squid and was really really good! It came with a spicy dip that I wish I knew the recipe for. I would go back to this place just for this dish.

We topped our meal off with two Heinekens and then called it a night.

I would say our first day, as far as meals go, was a success.

Seoul Food!

August 19, 2009 Bradley Farless7 Comments

Yup. That is in fact spelled right. I’m not talking about traditional black American food. I’m talking about a restaurant chain in Singapore named Seoul Garden!

On Sunday afternoon we went out for a movie, and then afterwards we decided to have dinner at Seoul Food. It was a group decision. My wife and I had often seen the place but had decided not to eat there. We just didn’t care much for the way it looked, and this picture of the goat in the window deterred me:

Some of you may remember me posting this photo before. Well, I guess I gave in. I ate the poor goat.

So anyhow, the place was pretty surprising as far as quality of food goes. When you first walk in your put at a table that has a griddle and bowl of broth in the middle.

It’s up to you to decide your fate:

Some of the items are raw, like the meats in the second photo, and some are precooked and just need to be heated up, like the items just past the person barely visible in the first photo. There’s also an array of veggies that you can either turn into a plain salad (no dressing) or dump into the pot or onto the hot plate.

It’s all really good, and it’s an all-you-can-eat buffet, so you can sit down, take your time, relax, and chat with your family and friends (and eat more because you’re eating slowly and get more for your money).

The photo above is mainly about that small yellow bowl and what’s in it. One of the people with us prepared it from the dessert buffet area. I’m not sure what all of the ingredients are, and either I really misheard what she called it or I just can’t find it on the internet. She seemed to enjoy it, but I passed on that for ice cream and little pieces of cakes.

The place is a pretty good value for your money and it’s located (the one we went to anyway) on the same floor as the movie theater in Tampines Mall, right in front of you when you come off the escalator.

Last, but not least… a random shot of the table:

If you make it over there, enjoy! Oh, and from what I saw in the Google search suggestions, there are Seoul Gardens located all over the US as well, including New York City.

Kopi Alley (at Downtown East)

August 16, 2009 Bradley Farless4 Comments

One of the best things about Singapore, to me anyway, has been the food. Also, as a coffee lover, it didn’t take me long to try the Kopi that you can find at most every hawker center in Singapore. There are people that hate it, but somehow I got addicted to the stuff and love to have it after dinner whenever possible. I won’t go into the details of how it’s prepared, because I honestly don’t know them, but it’s well worth trying if you ever get the chance.

There are plenty of places you can go to get Kopi. Like I said, you can get it from hawker centers, but there are also fancier looking restaurants set up in malls that sell Kopi. Some of them call it coffee, like the place on the bottom level of White Sands in Pasir Ris (Kayakun Toast I think?), but it’s still the same, and it’s still good.

Here are some photos of Kopi Alley at Downtown East:

I really like the design theme they went with for Kopi Alley, and I was a bit surprised, considering what they sell. It looks nicer than a lot of so-called fine dining restaurants I’ve been in. By the way, the total cost for the items in the last 3 photos was only 5.30 SGD. That’s not too bad at all, and it was overkill. We went there after dinner and we wound up not finishing that chocolate spread toast, so we could’ve done without it. It was a bit too sweet too, but… what did I expect, ordering chocolate spread toast?

Buddy Hoagies at Downtown East

August 12, 2009 Bradley Farless4 Comments

The first time my wife and I saw this place we kinda scoffed at the name. It sounds pretty lame right? So, we didn’t bother trying it out. We didn’t even bother looking it up online.

I was really in the mood to try something new, though, so when a Friday night rolled around and we couldn’t decide where we wanted to go, I said, “Well, how about that Buddy Hoagies at Downtown East?” My wife couldn’t think of anything she’d rather have, so that’s where we went.

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. The first thing I noticed was that the place has a nice ambiance.

Buddy Hoagies at Pasir Ris White Sands / E-Hub

The place is really relaxed. The lighting isn’t too bright either, though it seems that way in the second photo. That’s just a bad shot! I think it helped that there weren’t too many other people in the place at the time. It gave the whole dining experience a relaxed feel and was conducive to conversation.

The place also has a fun look to it, with nifty little pictures up on the wall, a cafeteria style bar, and (though you can’t see them in the photo) a section of seating with nice, cushioned seats that help you relax.

The service was pretty good. I got the impression that our waitress wasn’t having a good day, but she still forced a smile and was passably polite, if a little brusque.

The food itself was another surprise. For what we paid I wasn’t expecting a miracle, but you definitely get a lot of value for your money. I was so happy with our food in fact that at the time I snapped these photos on my phone and put them out on Twitter. Some of my Twitter followers were quite jealous of my meal that night!

The Sirloin Steak

The veggies were crunchy, the meat was well cooked, and I was actually kinda shocked to see baked potatoes. I think this was the first time I’d had one in over a year. Too bad there was no sour cream, chives, and bacon bits to go on it, but hey, can’t have everything right?

Overall, Buddy Hoagies was a great dining experience. The food was fantastic and the value for the food was great too. We’ll definitely be going back.

Spinach Bacon OmuRice From Manpuku

July 14, 2009 Bradley Farless2 Comments

Lunch on Sunday was Spinach Bacon OmuRice from the Manpuku restaurant in Tampines 1. I didn’t remember seeing the stall before and the dishes looked interesting so I thought I’d give it a try. I was later told by a friend that it was added recently.

As you can see from the picture, this dish is a big tasty omelet covered in a white cream sauce with bacon and spinach. I was actually disappointed with how little spinach there was on the dish. I was hoping for more. There was a nice amount of bacon, but it wound up not being enough either.

You see, I had sort of expected there to be a more interesting filling in this omelet, but instead it was filled with just plain fried rice and a very small amount of mushrooms. I think I sifted through the rice and only found 5 tiny pieces of mushroom total.

It was tasty, but as soon as the sauce, bacon and spinach were gone, the rest of it became rather bland. A good dish introduces a lot of variety, to keep your mouth and tastebuds happy. This one just didn’t do the trick for me and I don’t think I’ll order it again.

Strangely enough, we wound up meeting friends later in the evening at this same restaurant and one of them ordered the exact same dish. She didn’t finish it either and commented on how it wasn’t very good after the toppings were gone.

BBQ Chicken Revisited

July 2, 2009 Bradley Farless2 Comments

Over the weekend my wife and I spent quite a bit of time out and about and we happened to find ourselves at Tampines 1 as evening approached. We started thinking about where we wanted to have dinner when we saw the Tampines 1 branch of BBQ Chicken. I believe it’s a local chain restaurant. We’d eaten there before and the food was pretty decent, so we decided to give it another shot.

This time, we both chose meals from the main course selection. I got the “Jerk BBQ” and my wife got the “Korean Charbroiled”. We had a good laugh about that because when I ordered it she said, “Figures”. Ha ha ha! We also had another order of an appetizer called Koshi. There’s a picture of that in the previous post that’s linked to above.

One of the problems I noticed with this restaurant is that they don’t seem to understand the concept of “appetizer”. It’s supposed to come before the food so you have something to snack on while you wait for your main course. In both of our visits to BBQ Chicken, at both locations, the appetizer was served along with the main meal, as if it were a side dish.

That aside, the food was pretty good. It’s still nothing to get excited about, but it makes for a decent dinner.

Here are some pictures:

The top image is the Jerk BBQ and the bottom image is the Korean Charbroiled. Ya, there’s quite a bit of bad grammar in the menu and in the slogans along the walls. I should get some photos of that and post it sometime.

What we always want to try, but wind up not having room in our bellies for, is a dessert called Pat Bing Soo. It sounds delicious! One of these days we’ll have to go there just to have that dessert. Here’s a shot of the Pat Bing Soo entry in the menu that shows the ingredients: