li bai cantonese restaurant, sheraton singapore

average-ish cantonese fine dining at the basement of the sheraton – which is to say, it fulfills at least the baseline for the sort of eating you expect at this sort of establishment.

very traditional, quite heavy, not really inspiring. we had high hopes for this place: it’s an institution in its own right, and you’ll notice from its clientele that it draws many old-school regulars. but while I have a care for tradition, our tastes run to the lighter flavours associated with modern cuisine – and we found this place a little too conservative, and might I say, a little stifling.

this post is a little late – but the flurry of CNY (chinese new year) celebrations and the closing of the financial does not make for punctual blogging.

the waterfall, shangri-la hotel singapore

wholesome, chichi, yummy-mummy-abound buffet of antipasti and salads at this cafe in the rather-tough-to-get-to shangri-la hotel (they serve up some fantastic mains too). I have finally made my way to this place, and it couldn’t be sooner – the food is light and clean (on the palate; hygiene here taken for granted) and varied in both flavor and color, and there’s a relaxing vibe to this place that lends itself to lazy weekend brunches.

great service too, and reasonable prices given the quality and type of food served – it’s worth the drive/ trek.

chicago, usa (take 1)

I had the chance this july to head to chicago, and I love it. love it.

it’s an amazing city full of eating, and eating, and shopping – and those are my favorite things to do, ever. I was so excited planning the trip up: there are just so many restaurant recommendations on both yelp and chowhound, and refinery29 and serious eats – I nearly went into hysterics just the few days before going up.

singapore may be a good place for an eater, but chicago (and london, incidentally) takes gastronomy to another level.

lijiang eats, china

lijiang had the best eating we did in this yunnanese trip – we arrived armed with low-to-no expectations and were met not only with interesting options, but good ones as well. there was a good mix of restaurants and small-store options that helped bridge the gap between meals, and that helped engender this town even more to our affections.

sometimes, it’s good to be a tourist in a touristy town.

straits cafe at hotel rendezvous, bras basah

ok, so I promise this the last of chinese new food-related posts for this year at least; but this post was sitting forlornly in the drafts folder, and I thought to share.

I’ve reviewed this place before, and I pronounced it decent – which I would like to iterate now. what I should say in addition, though, is that while it may not be the best buffet in singapore, I think it the best for its utility-to-price ratio.

wah lok cantonese restaurant, city hall

now, it’s a thursday – and we’re nearly at the weekend – so don’t be harsh. I know this post is a tad late, seeing as how it starts with a photo of yusheng and chinese new year is nearly two months past.

it’s still a worthwhile post though, as the food we had was fantastic, and really rather top of its class. wah lok has always been a steady bulwark of the fine dining cantonese scene, and it well deserves its reputation – food is outstanding, service is utter old-school goodness, and the place is modern (none of that outdated furnishing you see so often in these restaurants) but amenable to cosy family dinners.

a high thumbs up from me, and definitely gratifying.

golden peony, city hall

I want to write a scathing post about this place, just based on how unhappy I was at the end of this meal – but I can’t bring myself to verbose hostility this morning, and so you have to imagine how bad it was. suffice to say that I was disappointed, not just because this was supposed to be an institution, a stalwart of fine chinese dining in singapore – and what we got, at incredibly high prices and pretty lacking service, was dimsum not even at the standards of the midrange chinese restaurants like yumcha.

this may have been one occasion, the first after many years of good food followed by a long gap of nearly five years, but it was enough to discourage from further visits – and almost definitely not for dimsum.

lime at parkroyal on pickering, chinatown (part 2)

very good, concise buffet spread at the new parkroyal on pickering. so I’ve told you a bit about this place and how pretty it is in my last post – and now let’s talk about the eatin’.

I feel the need to insert a caveat here – I enjoyed this spread because it had precisely the sort of thing I like to eat, but if you come here expecting the massive sort of round-the-world line-up the shangri-la provides,  then you might be a tad disappointed. I don’t personally go in for large spreads – I once filled up on popiah (a cheap local dish of braised radish) at another buffet to the desperation of my partner – and I appreciate quality over quantity.

lime at parkroyal on pickering, chinatown (part 1)

for part 2 of this post (with photos of the food!) – here’s it!

really good international-asianish buffet at the spanking-new parkroyal at pickering. it’s managed to bring some modern cool to this area – which despite growing into a hipster enclave, has kept to kitschy old-means-retro, rather than a modern aesthetique. this post also marks my first post back in singapore, and boy am I excited about that – I have an incredible backlog of posts and so ready to share.

so, the short: one of the better buffets, a small but good spread (might be subjective), and a lovely, gorgeous space with great service and no issues you’d associate with new establishments. this first post on the place is more space-descriptive – the eating comes in the next one here!

marriott café buffet, town

surprisingly, unexpectedly decent buffet spread at the ground floor cafe at the marriott. there isn’t much else to say about buffets (this is how blog posts always start before an astounding number of words follow) apart from the fact that it’s a manifestation of how greedy singaporeans can be (and are). there are people who try and strategise their day’s eating so as to make the most out of a single meal – I try rather to treat this as a sort of serve-yourself degustation menu. it’s far too easy to go overboard and hate yourself after the meal.