Treat Yourself To A Good Dinner 🥩

Ambience: 4/10 (We were seated near the toilet, had to borrow chairs from other tables and help clean up the table ourselves, the restaurant was busy and noisy the entire evening and servers was not friendly at all.. THAT SAID, dining at Long Ji was still worth it because the food was really good!)

Taste: 9/10 (I am not a crab fanatic like most of my family members are but wow this crab beehoon tasted really amazing. The wokhey from the beehoon that was stir fried with a copious amount of garlic, and the thick, flavourful broth are perfect when combined. SO GOOD. Other dishes worth ordering include the drunken prawns in claypot, stir fried meesua, coffee pork ribs and green dragon vegetable stir fried with garlic!!! 😍)

I have never been a fan of Shi Li Fang because quality soup base is what I live for, and this Taiwanese hotpot chain is undeniably lacking in this area.

That said, their meat dishes (which are perpetually on 50% discount) deliver extremely great value for money. We ordered a full portion of Japanese wagyu beef which cost us $25.50 before GST. I think that’s very good value for money (Can’t afford to splurge at Beauty In The Pot and Haidilao all the time). Personally, I enjoyed the Kurobuta pork (only $14.10 for a full portion!!!) more than the wagyu slices.

Taste: 8/10 (I love the taste of garlic, and the generous sprinkle of deep fried garlic on this dish was definitely a huge plus point for me! I usually avoid aglio olio because the chances of me being served a plate of limp noodles soaked in slightly heated olive oil is extremely high. This rendition definitely exceeded my expectations. The prawns were large and really fresh; the pasta was al dente and well flavoured from the oil used to pan fry the prawns!!! VERY YUMMY..)

Price: 8/10 ($18 for a plate of pasta at a drinking joint is very reasonable IMO. But other food options were not so affordably priced based on my recollection..)

Ambience: 10/10 (Dining at this bar/restaurant was so relaxing - the servers were friendly and gave plenty of “space”, the music was soft and soothing, the crowd was slightly older so it was not rowdy or excessively loud inside the restaurant, and the sofa seats were so comfortable..)

Taste: 8/10 (I am not usually a fan of Korean pancakes because most restaurants serve renditions that are too limp and carby for my liking.. When my friend told me that Dal In does this dish perfectly, I was honestly quite skeptical. Turns out, their pancake was so well done, I ate a good half of the dish. The batter was pan fried to a crisp; the inside remained soft and moist with a slight bit of chewiness. There was plenty of fresh seafood in every piece and the soy sauce was so so good!!!)

Price: 7/10 (This seafood scallion pancake cost us $30++.. Considering this was just a side we shared, we paid about $50 each for the meal.)

Always gonna be a fan of pineapples on pizza no matter what they say..

Vine-ripened tomato sauce, mozzarella, parmesan, cheddar, pepperoni, classic ham, fresh pineapple chunks

Taste: 8/10 (Thin and crispy crust, quality ingredients, copious amounts of cheese 👌🏽)

Price: 7/10 ($18 for an 11” pizza - quite reasonably priced to me..)

The owner was proudly sharing his soup recipe to the diners seated beside us as we were having our meal. His secret? Quality ingredients.

Our hotpot was served with pieces of pork rib and pig tail, lean pork slices, some innards, white clams, huge prawns, crab and white cabbage.

Taste: 7/10

Price: 6/10 (We paid a total of $50 for a huge pot full of quality ingredients and 2 bowls of refillable prawn noodles.. It was definitely not an expensive meal, but considering the soup base was the prawn noodle broth and each bowl of prawn mee goes for $10, I’m not too sure if I would return for this hotpot..)

I have been a huge fan of Tonkatsu by Ma Maison since my college days.

The famous cutlets, which are fried to a golden crisp, remain amazingly succulent on the inside. There’s also the refillable tonjiru (pork and vegetable miso soup) which goes so so so well with the rice and pork cutlet 😍

While most of my friends go for the juicer Rosu (pork loin) cut, I strictly prefer Hire (fillet) for the leaner and cleaner taste.

Food: 9/10

Price: 7/10 ($22.80 for 120g; $24.80 for 160g)

Ambience: 8/10 (Would recommend the outlet at Mandarin Gallery over the one at Chijmes for more seats and better service)

The rich, creamy and slightly sweet milk-based broth for this dish never fails to impress me.. 💕 Perfect for dinner on a rainy night!

Taste: 10/10 (I am a huge fan of soupy dishes and personally prefer this dish to more popular renditions like chilli crab and black pepper crab)

Price: 6/10 (Not the cheapest. $70/kg of crab)

This rendition of my favourite Nonya curry dish was homely yet fancy. The fresh shrimps, together with the hebi (dried shrimps), gave the vegetable curry a very deep and aromatic flavour. I would could have easily finished a plate full of rice just with this dish on the side. It was THAT GOOD! 💕

Taste: 9/10

Price: 7/10 (We paid approx. $15 for this dish. It’s a pretty decent price considering Nonya food is usually pretty expensive)

Ambience: 7.5/10 (Would definitely recommend other Peranakan places like Blue Ginger or Violet Oon for better ambience)

Service: 6/10