Angelo's, Killiney Road

Extremely disappointing. Has got to be the worst Italian food I've had this year. Will not return. Waste of money.

Ayam Penyet Ria, Lucky Plaza

I admit to being a little skeptical on first sight at this place (304 Orchard Road, #01-45 Lucky Plaza tel : +65 6235 6390) from the huge crowd and lengthening queue. The first thing that had occurred to me was simply how the kitchen could've kept up with what must have been a mad demand for their fried chicken since it was pretty much what everyone was having. The pessimist in me imagined greasy battered chicken fried in a rush resulting in what I thought to be another over rated chicken joint.

To my surprise, it was all pretty damn good in spite of their flash fast service after the order. And no, the chicken wasn't excessively greasy at all. What surprised me was that the crispy thin batter was nicely done, encapsulating meat that wasn't overly dehydrated. Even their fried tempeh has a creamy quality about it. Not to mention a really tasty gado gado with a rich and sweet peanut gravy. I'm definitely coming back again.

Our Food Story, Chinatown Point

Wasn't much of a story to be told here (Chinatown Point, Block 133 New Bridge Road, #01-01A) in this little restaurant attached to the Korean grocery joint down in Chinatown Point. The food might have been home styled but it left us little interest in returning. Let's see - their spicy tuna jigae was made from shredded canned tuna instead of pieces of the fish.

Couldn't find much redemption from that small portioned kimchi fried rice which packed the barest of flavour of kimchi. It looked like it was microwaved with some sliced cheese. Not that I was expecting a dizzying spread out of the banchan but they were quite forgettable and there wasn't any refills to speak of. I've had much better kimchi from Koufu at Toa Payoh Central.

So there you go, my food story.

Specials from Da Mario

Well, these didn't exactly look that special, but they were picked from the Specials section of their menu. Basically, a starter of scamoza cheese wrapped in some prosciutto crudo di Parma with a sprinkle of pepper and some rockets followed by egg tagliatelle with Porcini and shaven black truffles in a light cream sauce.

The choice of starter turned out to be the most satisfying for me since I had pretty much had a Warrior's diet for the day and the onrush of the salt from the milky curd cheese and ham was exactly what my body was craving for. The chewy cheese weren't the smoked variety and were probably just lightly pan fried with very little browning. Still things came together very nicely with the nutty ham for a great savory finish.

So, what did I think of the pasta? It was timely cooked, still had the hint of egg even though it was doused in the cream sauce loaded with various fungi. I did think that the flavors tonight could have been one of those good instances of a well balanced robustness, redolent of mushrooms instead of being excessive at that. It lingered with my burps even after a bottle of wine and a pint. Overall, was an enjoyable choice for my late impromptu dinner.

Pu Tien Restaurant, Marina Square

I had been wanting to give this place (6 Raffles Boulevard, #02-205 Marina Square, tel : +65 6336 4068) a try for the longest time now. Now that I have, I ended up with pretty mixed feelings about the restaurant. I did honestly find the food enjoyable in spite of the small portions for each serving. The wait staff like troopers, put up with an admirable plasticity to the incessant queries from the maddening queue on the statuses of the tables. What threw off a possibly good impression for a start was that we still had to wait for over half an hour despite having made reservations already.

If I were to be asked what I had liked about the food, I guess it would be pretty much everything was enjoyable except for the desserts. The sweet and sour pork was decently done and their signature fried bee hoon was probably a little bit overrated in my opinion. Still liked it though. Their sweet chilled seaweed and springy textured braised pig intestines (that looked like it was stuffed with more intestines) flavored in some Chinese wine more than made up it. Not to mention too, a very plate of fresh tasting fried Chinese mustard and their interesting rendition of what tasted like a stir fried sweet and sour century egg.

A pity about that pumpkin cream which was really drowned out by the coconut flavors and sweet potatoes that were suspiciously soft to the point that I didn't quite enjoy them. It didn't quite help that the ginger tea that was served along with them was more sugary than gingery. Didn't enjoy the lukewarm fried potato balls that was a tad greasy and floury tasting with the fillings neither.

And oh yeah, I did say that the bee hoon was overrated. I didn't say it was bad. Au contraire.

seaweed

Putien styled century egg

braised stuffed pig intestines

sweet and sour pork with lychee

stir fried Chinese mustard

fried "Hing Wa" bee hoon

pumpkin cream with ice cream

Japanese sweet potato

Javier's Rotisserie & Salad Bar, Orchard Cineleisure

This place (8 Grange Road, Cathay Cineleisure Orchard, #B1-03/04/05/K4 S239695) sure kindles me the memories of Ponderosa back in the day when they still graced these shores and I was but a mere kid. A lot of that kindling probably came from the layout of their salad bar and the selections they had. Not to mention that Javier's Rotisserie is run by the people from our local chain of pretty respectable steakhouses, Aston's, whose owner was formerly from Ponderosa. I wouldn't dispute that these were also the guys that lengthened the yardstick for the general masses on the quality of grilled beef on this island in the recent years since they've established themselves.

Mnemonic embers and the current history of plated bovine aside, the food was pretty decent. To simply put, one chooses a meat of choice and helps themselves over a spread of warm and cold salads. Rotisserie and salad bar. I found the beef nicely done, enjoyable as what I could reasonably expect from such a joint. Although I did think it might have benefited from being served a little warmer than it was. Don't even think about getting that antiquated Kenny Roger's into comparison for their roasted birds. The latter's only salvation these days are the corn bread and their mac & cheese.

What did appeal to me was the salad bar though it wasn't quite that feeling that I had as a child, standing, spoilt for choice and wondering what was good. They even had that coleslaw which tasted exactly like the ones I liked at Aston's.

It was a little quiet down on a Saturday afternoon. I sure hope that business picks up for them so that they can stay around.