My go-to breakfast item in Maxwell. The peanut pancake ($0.70) is reminiscent of a mee chiang kueh, just with a pandan twist! Fragrant, moist and chewy with the crushed peanut bits makes the pancake a great snack. For those who are not a fan of peanuts, there are other options; mung bean, red bean and coconut.
Besides the signature pancake, 翁 Pancake sells fried fritters such as ham ji peng, youtiao, sesame ball and butterfly dough fritter. All at the same price of $0.70 too. The sesame balls are soft and flavourful with generous fillings.
The famed Kuala Lumpar Hokkien Mee Restaurant has a history of over 100 years old and has opened a branch in SOGO which made it a lot more convenient for us Singaporeans! I ordered the Claypot Lou Shu Fen that came with an uncooked egg in the middle. The noodles were stir fried and doused with generous amount of dark soya sauce, giving it that sweet and salty flavour.
Overall the noodles got a tad repetitive half way through (if you get what I mean) and I would recommend sharing it. We had a teapot of Kukpo tea to wash down the surfeitness. Just a heads up - the KL Hokkien mee is not the same as what we have here but with the same flavour profile as the 老鼠粉 just with the thick egg noodles. Though I love the cabbage slices which gave more texture to the dish and cut through the sauce.
I'm not saying it sucks but it didn't live up to expectations. Would love to have more wokhey/robustness to it and maybe even more elements to the dish, like squid? Still worth a try though!
Have been craving for Indian food recently and Gurkha Palace's Nepalese and Indian cuisine really hit the spot. The cozy dining space is decorated with Nepalese classical décor and traditional brass utensils.
The four of us shared a couple of butter and garlic naans to go along with palak paneer (cottage cheese with spinach), aloo jeera (cumin seeds spiced potatoes), shahi korma (braised chicken curry with cashews), steamed momos (dumplings) and chicken sekuwa (skewers). The momos were rather underwhelming, nothing super fantastic - just minced chicken and doughy skin. Perhaps the fried ones would be a better choice. BUT that's the only disappointment. The Nepali skewers spiced with Himalayan blend were tender and flavourful. The Mughlai curry dish was so creamy and rich from the cashews, just with a little heat in the aftertaste. Potatoes dish were simple yet tasteful - might try to do this for a meal prep. And our favourite was definitely the palak paneer. Smooth and delicious spinach puree with paneer cubes was just so satisfying. Yums.
Definitely come here in a group to try all of these comforting and hearty dishes. It is really affordable as well, with the total bill coming up to ~$60. You are sure to be full! Oh, and they have complimentary papadums with a bomb-ass hari chutney.
Used Burpple Beyond which made the meal value for money. The chicken was flavourful, juicy and tender. Unfortunately, sweet potato fries were soggy and not crisp.
Service was a solid 10/10 - polite, attentive and helpful. I queried if they could remove the blue lagoon component from my aqua marine and they made the change for me without additional charge.
Malt milk and cereal combination made the cookie both chewy and crunchy. Preferred the cookie over the crossiant personally, though the cookie is rather sweet for me. Would love if they added more chocolate for that bittersweetness. Definitely gonna be a returning customer though!
Roasted Black Grouper ($28++) skin was crisp with a flavourful sauce. We like strong tasting food so mixing in the garam masala spice in really hits the mark! Full of unami and the pickled shimeji adds a tad of sourness. Canto Grouper ($26++) had an sweet broth reminiscent of those wedding dinner soup, but elevated. A must try! They use sake here instead of the typical Chinese wine. Sweet potato noodles - springy for that mouth feel. If we had to be really picky, the dish could use some chilli or stronger alc for an added kick .
Yes to the big slab of unagi. Not so much for the fried rice; tasted like an ordinary fried rice, the garlic didn't come through.
Wokhei porridge didn't have much wokhei either. Though the fish eggs and scallops were great additions. Prefer the porridge to the fried rice but will I purchase either without burrple beyond? Nay.
This mess tasted better than it looks - salty, cheesy, creamy. It was a lot going on for sure, in a good way. Though you might get really jelat after eating it as it is ricccch and heavy. Worth the price though. In other places, oridinary fries are already costing up to $12.
Laksa vongole was the winning dish for us. Legit creamy laksa and they didn't skim on the clams. Wished that the youtiao was softer to soak up the laksa though.
Nice crispy ends gave it a good mouth feel. Coconut fillings were not too sweet, so that was great. A tad thinner than other pancakes I've had.
Salted ham ji peng ($1.30) didn't have much of a flavour. It was a bit dense & pricey. Prefers the one sold at Maxwell.
The handmade dumplings (steamed/fried) cost $4/8 pieces stuffed with minced pork and chives. Though delightfully crispy, I wasn't the biggest fan only because the meat smell/taste was too strong for my non-redmeat taste buds. Oooh got to say that the soy-vinegar dipping sauce made me like it better. The Shanghai Hor Fun ($3/4/5 for S/M/L) was a starchy, gooey mess that is sure to fill you up. It was a bit bland for me and tried adding the chilli to amp up the flavour, however the chilli was more on the sweet side than spicy. Still a decent dish nonetheless. Hot and Sour Soup was more sour than spicy but just a warning, it is super duper starchy.
As an individual who prefers her tastebuds being slammed by flavours, nesuto's cakes were a tad too light for me. Great flavours though. My favourite were the cheesecake and earl passion. For the latter, passion fruit came through then the dark chocolate. Not so much of the earl grey.
The whole freshly brewed tea concept is a great touch but I felt there should be a good balance between novelty/quality and efficiency. We queued a total of 40mins for ordering and getting the drinks.
Tea taste was really weak for me, even at 0% sugar and less ice option. Maybe because I'm really used to strong teas. Though I kinda like the mousse, it's less salty and slightly salty. (Side track: if only koi has this mousse for their tea macchiato.) Despite the generous amount of toppings and the unique tea blends, I would rather stick to Koi and Gongcha for my BBT fix if I ever need one.
