Kam Tong Restaurant London

Roast Duck

Siew Yoke

Deep Fried Squid with Salt and Pepper

Mixed Curry Vegetables

Having heard rave reviews from my friend Joseph as well as reading online reviews, I decided to check out this restaurant at Bayswater. After hearing that this place had roast duck that was better than that of Four Seasons, I was pretty sceptical about it. How right I was. :(

Being a huge fan of roast duck, I can devour a whole bird and 2 cups of rice in one sitting. :) However, this roast duck sorely lacked the taste to whet my appetite to such an extent. For a chinese restaurant, the dishes seemed to sorely lack in sodium. Amazing eh?

The roast duck seemed to be lacking any taste of sort. It was neither salty nor sweet (as per Four Seasons/Gold Mine). The only thing that they had in common was the same fattiness. The gravy had the same look and appearance as the the other restaurants, but it was extremely plain to say the least. I was really disappointed with my roast duck dinner tonight, and I actually contemplated buying back some of the real stuff from Four Seasons, but alas I was too full.

The only saving grace was the Siew Yoke though. It was crispy and salty, definitely providing a good contrast to the tasteless roast duck that I just had. For £8.50, the portion served for the deep fried squid was very small and as per Kam Tong style, it lacked salt as well. Lastly, the mixed vegetable curry is a very westernised version of the dish I'm used to back home (sayur lodeh) and please do not order it!:)

By the way, I gotta sort out my bad habit of starting to eat before taking pictures. An eager beaver does not make a good foodie.:P

Paradise on Earth Steamboat

Sorry for the lack of posts recently- I've been busy with work and life, and Siew Mai's been busy with his final exams. His last paper is on Friday, so I suppose more posts will come after that! :)

Steamboat is one of my favourite foods, never mind that its time consuming cuz you have to wait for the food to cook, or that you're paying good money to basically cook your own food. I like how its tummy-warming and filling, and that you usually have it with a group of friends/family (ie bonding time!). I guess it also helps that i love drinking soup!

Look past the slightly cheesy name of this place, and you'll be rewarded with a more-than-decent steamboat option. Its an ala-carte buffet, so items are fresh (meats and fish are sliced on the spot for you).

There are 4 or 5 stock bases including chicken stock, fish head and scallop broth, tom yum soup and mala soup. As ome member of our party doesnt take spicy stuff, we opted for the first 2 soup bases. Both were satisfactorily tasty and didnt leave any msg aftertaste :)

One thing i like about this place is that they have stuff like fried yam, pumpkin, fish glue, and even fried rice. Very few other steamboat buffet places have such options- i love dunking a piece of crispy fried yam in the soup and watching it soak in and absorb the tastiness of the soup till the yam is nice and soft and oh-so-tasty, knowing that its gonna end up in my mouth and belly :)))

Also worthy of mention is their fried rice, which comes free flow with the buffet. Again, you order it off the menu, and I could actually watch the chefs frying it up in the kitchen. No chance of it being pre-fried and placed in a warmer, waiting to be scooped out for unsuspecting customers. I like that there's sufficient wok hei in the dish though it isnt exactly chockful of ingredients. But at least each grain of rice is coated with sufficient egg and is fried to a beautiful golden colour. Tbh, I would even pay for this fried rice if they decided to take it off the ala-carte buffet menu!

Paradise on Earth is located at 200 Tanjong Katong Road, near the HK Street Chun Kee Restaurant. The ala-carte buffet costs 19.90sgd nett, but do note that this excludes drinks!

Domino's

Texas BBQ

Domino's Premiere

I know I've blogged about Domino's before but I gotta re-do it again. Heh. There's nothing better than a Domino's pizza for a busy student during his exams:) I wish they have it in Singapore -__-

Dimsum at Ah Yat Seafood at Turf City

This was half-priced dimsum at Ah Yat Seafood Gallery at Turf City. We over-ordered again, of course, but this time it was justified- we'd just been through a tiring session of 4 hrs of wakeboarding and hadn't had anything to eat the entire day!

The items were not bad overall- seafood was reasonably fresh and porridge wasnt too watery. There were also a few innovative items like pumpkin dumplings and deep fried yam with prawns. But what pushed it up a notch further was def the half price promotion! It's applicable from 11am to 2pm 7 days a week. Only downside is the inaccesible location...

Gourmet Burger Kitchen Burgers

Gourmet Burger Kitchen is a popular burger chain in London. They're famous for their wide range and well just famous for their burgers:) Prices range from about £6-£8 for a burger and each table comes with a cute little ketchup bottle as seen in the picture above:P The burgers are pretty good I would say, and sure as hell beats Burger King anyday!

Gold Mine Restaurant, Bayswater

Roast Duck

Crab Meat Tofu

Apologies for the lack of updates as I've been pretty busy of late. Finally, after being a loyal customer to Four Seasons all this while, I decided to take the leap and try the roast duck at Gold Mine Restaurant. Apparently, the chef of Gold Mine used to work at Four Seasons and decided to set up his own restaurant. I gotta say that the duck tastes exactly the same, and to be honest, I can't really tell the difference between the 2 restaurants. Same fatty duck accompanied with the same delicious sauce. Yummy! We ordered a crab meat tofu as well and a plate of char siew/siew yoke which was pretty decent. However, I was starving and in my hurry to eat I forgot to take a picture of it:S

Riders Cafe

I'd been reading all the rave reviews for brunch at Riders Cafe, and wanted to try it out for myself. So 5 of us Belgium troopers fixed a brunch date a month in advance (that's what you have to do when your friends work in the legal, banking, media and hotel management industries), and made reservations for for a lazy Saturday brunch. :)







The extremely long drive in. It's impossible to walk in, so u'll either have to drive or catch a cab in.













its non-airconditioned, but there's a constant breeze and lots of fans arnd so it isnt too warm imo.

Eggs Florentine with Creamed Spinach and Rustic Mashed Potatoes

Om nom nom

Smoked Norwegian Salmon with Eggs Benedict and Rustic Mashed Potatoes

Riders Pancakes- 3 hot fluffy pancakes- carby goodness at its best, all for me!

Omelette with Mushrooms and Tomatoes, with Breakfast Potatoes

We also ordered another main- the Riders Breakfast, which consisted of bacon, sausages (or ham, i can't remember which), eggs done any style, potatoes, mushrooms, toast and tomatoes. While it was satiating, it was the least spectacular main of the afternoon.

We also ordered 3 sides- hand-cut fries with paprika, as well as 2 servings of sauteed asparagus (lousy attempt at trying to assuage our guilt)

Death by Chocolate Cake- by the time we were done with our mains and sides, no one could move. BUT the allure of chocolate proved irresistable (or maybe it was my constant wheedling), and we eventually succumbed to greed and ordered this massive chunk of warmed chocolate fudge cake smothered in (what else?) chocolate fudge sauce.



We managed to catch the horses trotting by! Rides Cafe is also famed for allowing customers to enjoy their food amidst much greenery as well as stables.

Having been to Riders Cafe for brunch and Mimolette for dinner, I think Riders Cafe is much more value for money and wallet-friendly than its sister restaurant. Of course, some would argue that that's because they are targetting different crowds and clientele. Overall, though, Riders Cafe gets my vote!