Cavern Restaurant, Rainforest Wild Asia

Cavern Restaurant is newly opened by the Tunglok Group at Rainforest Wild Asia (#02-32 Rainforest Wild Asia, 20 Mandai Lake Road, tel : +65 9853 7558). And yes, the cavern is obviously man made.

Food's decent. Had the burrata and heirloom beetroot salad with truffle honey which has a sweetness which I couldn't discern if it was from the honey or the beetroot. Cheese was nice but not the creamiest or milkiest I've had so I'm gonna call this not bad but also not great.

Burger's passable. Could tell it's beef but it lacked salt and char and considering that it says wagyu on the menu, the patty's kinda underwhelming. Otherwise not bad tasting. In retrospect, I'm pretty glad I got it sans sauce.

A different double bacon cheeseburger and no more short loin of lamb at iSteaks

Pretty sure this tasted different from the last time but I cannot put a finger to precisely what exactly differed. It felt less enjoyable today. In other news, their capped short loin of lamb has been taken off the menu. They claimed that it wasn't something that people ordered much. Sad - because my biggest reason for coming to iSteaks is no longer.

Pad krapow moo from Ubi Thai Kitchen

Pretty sure this pad krapow moo from Ubi Thai Kitchen has been flavoured down for some reasons. Basil's not much there, sauce would benefit from a little more salt and heat was pretty mild. It didn't taste bad per se, it's just not the flavour intense rendition I was looking forward to.

米粉面 from Liang Seng Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle (樑成香菇肉脞麵)

米粉面 at Liang Seng today. 米粉/mi fen being vermicelli. 面 = yellow noodles. Seems like the shredded lettuce is here to stay.

Nice textural combination of 米粉面 soaked in their mushroom sauce spiked with chilli.

Hao Wei Lai (好味来), Bukit Merah Central

Have walked past Hao Wei Lai (#01-3687, 165 Bukit Merah Central, tel : +65 9775 8718) numerous times and had never been curious enough to try their food until recently.

Edible fried rice with chicken & whitebait. This one was kinda damp and was devoid of any smokiness. It looked nothing like the pork chop fried rice which many of the neighbouring tables were having. Didn't hate it but will not get it again.

Kinda liked their stir fried shredded pork with dried tofu (豆干) because of the fermented bean flavour in the sauce and the 豆干. A tad more intensity with the fermented bean and salt and this would have slid from decent to awesome.

I enjoyed their broccoli for the simplicity. Just garlic and maybe light soya sauce.

Siew mai didn't leave much impressions. Probably because these weren't as delicate or flavourful as the Cantonese ones we've been used to. Will not be getting them again.

Revisiting Fook Kin

It's been a few years since we were last at Fook Kin. This restaurant has the worst online ordering UX I've ever come across to date.

Ice tea with lychee sorbet. Tea was pretty sweet, not exactly fragrant. Probably half the cup was ice. Ditto for that ice lemon tea below

Lemon tea required additional 50 cents. That's the 50 cents worth of lemon up there. Not great beverages here. Quality feels like coffeeshops that try to rip you off by giving you fillers and on top of that, restaurant prices.

Their mee pok with minced meat was pretty good tasting. Love the firm and chewy texture of the mee pok that's coated with their savoury lardy sauce. Would have been great if not for the sad portions of minced pork.

Something called wok hei fried rice with roast pork crunchies. Was hoping to at least get decent yang zhou fried rice standards but it didn't taste like that. Rice looked scorched but I'm not tasting smokiness. Roast pork mostly not crunchy. Also greasy in a way that I wasn't comfortable with.

Was initially curious by their truffle duck and momentarily wondered what ingenious rendition they might have come up with. In retrospect, it's just regular roast duck, probably just sprayed with truffle oil. Duck's dry. Not great. Not glad to be paying about $30 for an upper quarter as well.

I do not Fook Kin ❤️ this place. Here's a reminder to self, don't come back.