Shi Le Yuan (實叻園), Redhill Food Centre

Have seen Shi Le Yuan (#01-82 Redhill Food Centre, 85 Redhill Lane) a number of times but have always been deterred by their queue. Decided to give them a go recently and in retrospect, this was a queue I understood. Their kuey chap was pretty good.

All the stewed/braised stuff were tender. Notable mention goes to the pork belly and pig's tongue. Yup, pig's tongue. A rarity for kuey chap stalls. Offhand, the only other stalls which I can recall having them were Bukit Merah View Kway Chap (this one is not at Bukit Merah View btw) and Tuan Yuan Pork Ribs Soup. I'm gonna have to say that She Le Yuan has the better rendition.

Bao Er Cafe, Holland Village

Haven't been to the original Bao Er Cafe at Balestier. This was the newly opened branch at Holland Village. The experience was mediocre.

For some context, the owners are also responsible for Prawnography and Treasure Toast. Based on both experiences, we avoided their Hokkien mee. Also because we've heard that this one has got nothing on Shiok Hokkien Mee.

I was of the impression that having had a few eateries under their belt, they'd be pretty familiar with running another branch. One would assume that they've gotten experienced from lessons learnt. There's a number panel for order collection notification placed in a position that's obviously not easy to see. 🤔

The digital menu has no indication of anything that was not available. This could likely mean 

i) Usability is not a priority or requirement when they paid for it. 

ii) Or perhaps, it just never crossed their mind that out of availability items need to be made known 

iii) Feature was there and they never thought it would be useful to enable it.

🤔

More than half of our add ons were not available and we only learnt of it after the order was processed and paid for. 🤔

Which led to how that was managed. We were informed of the missing items and then told that we could do another order while they would cancel the first order. We responded by replying that we've already paid for that first order. They then offered that the second order can be offset by what we paid for the first order which we were okay with. Then they offered again for us to just take the first order with refund. Then the first order arrived. And we were kinda "forced" to accept it without the missing add ons in which a refund was given. I felt like we were cornered and because they appeared to be busy. 🤔

This was within the first week of operation and things have already started running out? 🤔

Felt like an absence of planned error recovery for a system lacking error tolerance. 🤔

Which brings me back to the beginning. What happened with them and their wisdom gleaned from running the original Bao Er Cafe, Prawnography and Treasure Toast? 🤔

Coffee's drinkable but not something I'd look forward to.

Bee hoon's oily and bland-ish. I got this thinking it would be the smoky rendition they did for Treasure Toast but it wasn't the same. The chilli saved it.

Luncheon meat fried rice was bland. No idea what went into it but the tiny cubes of luncheon meat barely registered flavour.

It was a good thing that we didn't get their kaya butter toast because the menu clearly depicted pandan kaya. When I went into the shop, noticed and asked about the mustard-y colour, I was informed it's coconut kaya. 😓

Brothers Ramen: why the Spicy Dry Megamen again

I topped up $1.80 for the bonito and mayo for my bowl today. Just for the experience (一, 二 , 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, 十一). Why this one again? Because again, I was hoping to get their niboshi bowl and it was not available. I wonder if that's permanently unavailable or do I just need to get it early in the day. Anyone knows?

I didn't dislike the add ons. It was nice for a bit but the mayo sorta wore its welcome from surfeit. Got tiring after a while because of the added creaminess on top of the already flavour bomb. Bonito's nice. Pretty big bowl though. In retrospect, I'm pretty happy with the basic megamen spiked with extra garlic. That's the clean flavour that endures the entire bowl.

Casa Vostra ending Year One

It's been about a year since Casa Vostra opened. Time sure flew by. The queue is still around. Some new stuff have come up on their menu.

Like braised beef cheeks flavoured with rosemary and pepper. Not bad tasting but wore its welcome quickly.

First year anniversary pizza featuring their wagyu bresaola. I was thinking that maybe more bresaola would be nice but after going through it, I was impressed by how much of the flavour came through with those slices.

Ravioli alla zucca was also new I think. Mini raviolis filled with pumpkin puree. We were tasting a lot of cheese and butter in this and lesser of the pumpkin. Not bad.

Today, we learnt that the menu allows an additional shot of espresso for their double shot espresso tonic. Nice.

KFC Breakfast Loaded Burger

Was thinking as I wrote if this post added to useless web clutter. But thank you posterity. Anyways, it's odd that the buns were cool for something assembled on order. Cool like "it wasn't microwaved long enough or at all" type of temperature. Tasted milky and cheap. Cheese wasn't melted as well. Loaded? I don't think they understand loaded. Well, another lesson learnt here.

A couple of fried rice from Sin Hoi Sai

Decently done preserved olive leaves fried rice from Sin Hoi Sai. Liked that the flavour of those olive leaves got through and the plate was not excessively greasy. There's sufficient salting which is something that shouldn't be understated. Some eggs and bean sprouts with spring onions inside as well. 

We were pleasantly surprised by their Yang Zhou fried rice. Came loaded with diced prawns and old school red dyed char siew and spring onions. Nice bit of smokiness and pretty savoury.

These two are worth coming back for.