Employees Only, Amoy Street

I've been wanting to come to Employees Only (112 Amoy Street, tel : +65 6221 7357) even before getting their smash burgers on delivery a couple of years back.

Drinks are expensive here. No cocktails for me.

Did not expect them to serve bread and steaming hot ones at that. 

Maguro kueh pie tee was not bad. Couldn't tell what the tuna was marinated with but this was a delicious mouthful of great munching texture with the crispy pie tee shells.

There's steak tartare on the menu. The tartare was mixed table side - but it wasn't as elaborate/complete as the ones from say L'Angelus or Claudine or db Bistro...hahaha. Of course it wasn't. The only condiment that was added table side were the Worcestershire and hot sauce. Not a bad tasting one but also not memorable.

Their spicy smothered shrimp was disappointing. Not even a quarter as spicy as it looked or sounded. Not getting the Sriracha that was supposed to be in it was well. Those shrimps had a battered skin which reminded me of wasabi prawns from Chinese restaurants. If you removed them from their batter/skin, those shrimps were actually pretty puny. #disappointment

I had to get the smash burger again. It was the primary objective of this visit. This was so good.

I've already said all I wanted to about the EO Smash Burger the last time and almost nothing has changed. This burger was still awesome. What was different this time were the buns which weren't squashed or soggy from delivery. They were pillowy tender - somewhat akin to the steamed buns for McD's Filet O Fish. Probably a bit fluffier. This smash burger alone was worth the trip.

Mala spicy noodles from Xing Hua (兴化)

This bowl of mala noodles from Xing Hua tasted like mala spices had been added into their white lor mee. There's a bit of heat and noticeable flavour from the Szechuan peppercorns in the gravy but as a whole wasn't much 麻 or very 辣. I'm on the fence about how I feel about this bowl. There's a bunch of other stuff we enjoyed from their menu so I don't think this will make it to the top of the list anytime soon.

Pong Noodle Village (彭傢面庄), Teck Ghee Court Food Centre

I'm not much of a local wanton mee person but I was recommended to give this stall a try. Seems like Pong Noodle Village (#01-20 Teck Ghee Court Market & Food Centre, 341 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1, tel : +65 9833 3604) has a similar backstory as Chun Seng Noodle House which followed a similar vein of an old established eatery that had closed down and then re-emerged from their ashes with a refreshed branding selling the same stuff, run by the next generation of the owners. 

Noodle texture was not bad. I found the sauce to be a little sweet but that's how they do them. Might try with more chilli if I ever come back. The wantons and sui gao weren't shabby; the latter had minced pork and bits of water chestnut. A competent plate better than many but still ranks lower in my books than stalls like Shun Feng Roasted Delights (顺沣港式烧腊) and Zhong Yu Yuan Wei (忠于原味云吞面).

Una Una, Bugis+

The quality difference between the unagi bowls from Una Una (#05-02/03 Bugis+, 201 Victoria Street, tel : +65 6238 1011) versus Man Man/Unagi Tei was obvious. While I hadn't expected a lot out of the cheapest unagi hitsumabushi in town, I still felt this was a letdown. Portions were kinda small for the double and the eels didn't have the light crispiness nor smokiness. Even the rice felt dry. It was a dollar more for the spicy bowl which basically involved just shichimi sprinkled over the eels.

The only consolation out of this was that two Sapporos were going for $10.

Loo's Hainanese Curry Rice, Tiong Bahru Food Centre

Loo's Hainanese Curry Rice has recently shifted from their former premise to the current location (#02-67 Tiong Bahru Food Centre, 30 Seng Poh Road) in Tiong Bahru Food Centre right where Original Tiong Bahru Golden Pig & Roasted used to be. Just next door to Skirt & Dirt.

So this was a late lunch (2-ish) and most of their cooked food were already sold out. Still plenty of their popular pork chop and curry squids for some reasons and there were still people in line though. The stewed cabbage didn't look appealing at all so the pork and squid were it for me today.

Lai Heng Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle (來興香菇肉脞麵), Toa Payoh

Finally managed to get a bowl from Lai Heng Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle (73 Toa Payoh Lorong 4) after hearing about them for so long. These guys are arguably ranked as one of the better minced meat noodle stalls around. Hence armed with a bit of reading and some real life feedback, I went in with my expectations tempered so as not to set myself up for disappointment.

Pretty solid bowl of bak chor mee by any standards. Chilli has that dried shrimp flavour but didn't pack as much heat as I was expecting/hoping for. Their concoction of the noodle sauce were more balanced compared to shops like Tai Hwa/Tai Wah which tend to be more vinegary. This bowl also had loads of stewed mushrooms. Will definitely try to get another bowl if I'm in the vicinity but I wouldn't go out of the way or endure too long a queue for them

Note to self : Stall has only a couple of bags of mee pok in the weekdays and will usually be sold out by lunch. No mee pok during the weekends.