346. Duo Le Restaurant

Sitting on 8th level of Orchard Central, Duo Le is much higher than just 8 storeys. You can see Singtel building clearly. Since it started, I have not been there so I took some time off my hectic schedule to take a walk there last week.

I thought there will be more than just a few tables but no, there were just a few tables.

Braised peanuts and thinly sliced potatoes.

红杏鸡@$9.80

I like to eat cold dish chicken, not just from Duo Le. I think chilled chicken taste nice and the tinge of numbness from the chili gave the fair bit of shiokness. Sliced cucumber gave the refreshingness. But, the chicken was immersed in chili oil which I felt too much would not do our body good. Try it once in a while.

干贝焖冬瓜@$26.80

This was good. The combination of beans complemented the colours well. Not to leave out the taste, especially the kidney beans. The winter melon was not too soft and being blandless, the sauce made the dish tasteful.

陕西卤汁蒸面@$12.80

Have you noticed? Potatoes appeared again in the dish. I felt it has a rather different braise taste which I'm not accustomed to.

海参麻婆豆腐@$26.80

Very much covered in oil. I could felt a tinge of numbness after eating the tofu. I felt this dish was just average. The difference being we won't cook our sea cucumber with tofu in this way.

陕西手工卷饼@$4.80

It was like Taiwan's cong you bing wrapped with sliced potatoes. The exterior was bland. The overall gave a starchy taste. It would have been better if there was dipping taste but there wasn't.

We had a pot of Pu-er tea at $8 and our bill worked out to be $115.10 which I felt was rather expensive.

Duo Le

181 Orchard Rd

#08-09/10

Orchard Central

345. Banana Leaf Apolo Restaurant

Rice Crackers

Chicken Masala

Quite spicy but if chicken masala is not spicy, where is the shiokness? Some of the chicken were in big chunks and some were merely bite size. The inconsistency in size resulted in us leaving the big chunk of chicken breast untouched.

The curry went well with the rice.

Mutton Mysore

Didn't manage to taste it.

Tandoori Chicken

Tender but could not really taste the marinated spices. The taste of char was stronger though.

Spinach with cottage cheese

It has got an acquired taste which didn't make me go for a second spoon. The colour played a part too. But fellow makan kakis loved it.

Free flow of cabbage and eggplants. The eggplants were cut in a quarter size. I didn't like popping the whole quarter egg plant in so I had it cut into smaller size. To my dismay, I found a big fat worm in it. Gross. I knew it was common for worms to 'reside' in eggplants. If you don't know, hope my experience here stays with you. I didn't want to complain but fellow kakis insisted and I thought it could be an alert for them to be more careful for the next wok of eggplants.

And I got the traditional dessert - gulab jamun as the compensation. Understood from my Indian makan kaki that it was made of milk powder and was immersed in sugar syrup. Very sinful.

Banana Leaf Apolo Restaurant

56/58 Race Course Road

344. Tokkuri Japanese Restaurant

Unagi with pork belly set @$17.90

A new Japanese eatery opened at Icon Village so I had it on my tasting list. It had a short counter which could the most take about 8 persons. It was full house at lunch time so me and my lunch kakis waited for a while. They were having a promotion of 2 specified lunch sets at $10.80++ each, a choice of the salmon or tonkatsu set if I didn't remember wrongly. The promotion could be still on currently.

I didn't go for the promotion lunch set. The unagi with pork belly simmered for 8 hours got my attention. And boy, it was good. Dipped a little of the mustard, the pork belly simply melted away. How I wished I had more than just two thin slices. It was thankful that the rice was good. The fat and satisfying short grain rice. I would feel quite cheated if the rice served was not a least bit like short-grain rice. The unagi was good too. In fact, I felt it was worth the money. I would definitely be back.

Tokkuri Japanese Restaurant
Icon Village
#01-35/40

Lunch : 11.30pm-2.30pm

Dinner: 5.30pm-9.30pm

Closed on sun

343. Ko Ryo Jeong Korean Restaurant

Fish set @$12

Hidden at the second level of the International Plaza(IP) which sits directly on top of Tanjong Pagar MRT station, Ko Ryo Jeong korean restaurant is not any inferior to the nearby Dae Jang Kuem Korean Restaurant.

One of my makan kakis brought me to this place for lunch some time ago. The fish was nicely grilled. Served hot and crispy on the exterior, it was good. The only flaw being there weren't many choices to choose from. Even for ramen, only egg and vegetables were added, no pork, said the lady boss. Only a few pan-chan was served. It could have been better if more were served. Very unlike the usual korean restaurants where more than 3 pan-chan would be served. Business was good and my lunch kaki shared that the night business is even better.

Ko Ryo Jeong Korean Restaurant

International Plaza

#02-59

342. Thasevi Food Roti Prata

Fried Chicken
They said it was good. I think it was well-fried.


Strawberry Prata @$5

I remembered clearly that it cost $5 because it was too expensive. A prata with some strawberry jam and it cost 10 times more expensive. Geez.

Mutton Briyani

You must be wondering where was the mutton. It was just a mouthful piece hidden underneath the briyani rice. Good thing about the briyani was it was not oily.

Indian Rojak

Indian rojak, quite a few varieties to choose from. I felt the dipping peanut sauce is the most important thing in Indian rojak. Thasevi's was not spicy at all and thus made the Indian rojak not so wow. We asked for another bowl of sauce but the boss waited till we almost finished the rojak then he came over to ask if we still wanted another bowl of sauce. I felt his actions explained he didn't want to waste the sauce but what about customers who didn't like sharing?

We had 3 teh-tarik. The teh-tarik was good, not-so-sweet and fragrant. Total bill was about $34 which I think was a tad expensive. Further up the road, there is the famous chocolate cake from Jane's cake station and a new prata outlet just next to the public carpark. I think the new outlet offered a greater variety. Mum said the nasi lemak and ginger tea was nice. I have not got the chance to taste it.

Thasevi Food Original Jalan Kayu Roti Prata
237/239 Jalan Kayu
Singapore
Tel: 6481 1537

341. Riders Cafe

I finally got my laptop back and thus uploaded my pictures. Brunch at Riders Cafe a week ago was a casual food blogger's affair. Met up with Harris, Elaine and Angeline&Sis. Brunch on a beautiful Sunday is nothing more you could ask for especially after 2 hectic weeks with all the year-end public holidays buried in a pile of work.

Riders Cafe is located at Bukit Timah Saddle Club, a rather inaccessible place but thanks to our Harris for the ride.

Morning Pancakes @$10

I love Pancakes! A slab of butter, a spoonful of berry compete and the very important maple syrup and maybe just a bit of the sinful whipped cream, they comes in a set with the pancakes, aren't they? The very much flattered pancakes rose to "stardom", tagged as the hot favourite at Riders Cafe. And it was not at all overrated. Fluffy and light. The way the pancakes were stacked looked like stacked-up Michelin tyres.

Frankly speaking, it made me wonder if I am eating more soda bicarbonate?

Elaine's pick

The smoked salmon looked good. Elaine had the portebello mushrooms replaced with smoked salmon. And she commented the prawns were dry.

Harris's pick

Harris let us tried a bit of his beef patty. Not sure if I'm lucky, I actually had soft bones in the bit of beef. Not sure if Harris had a fair bit of them in his beef patty. If that's so, it would be quite disturbing. Haha. But, taste wise was fairly good and because it turned cold after the photo-taking, I think it could be better if eaten hot.

Angeline's pick - Eggs Florentine

Angeline said her poached eggs were not runny enough. I think likewise and the hollandaise sauce was not enough.

It was a pleasant brunch, getting to know the people who shared the same passion. We saw a brown and white horse but we didn't manage to take photographs of the horses. We were seated nearer to the carpark so we didn't smell the urine smell of horses which some had mentioned of.

Riders Club
51 Fairways Drive
Singapore 286965
Tel: 6466 9819
Opens: Tue-Thu, Sun 8:30am-10pm
Fri-Sat 8:30am-10:30pm

340. Munch

3 picks, a soup & a glass of iced tea@$13.20

Went light for lunch today. Photo taken with my iPhone and if you have heard about it, you know the camera is a flaw of this android phone. The salad bar @Munch offered a wider range of salad to busy white-collars who would love to have more greens than meaty treats. The movement towards a 'greener' meal was not cheap. I dropped the idea of having pasta in my picks and went for a more oriental kind of salad with vermicelli. I loved the tomatoes with cottage cheese. So simple and so healthy. I would not mind having salad everyday if my budget allows.

Munch

HB Robinson
112 Robinson Road #01-01
Singapore 068902