I stood in line like any good customer to order 2 packs of mee pok tar. This was made to the guy taking order.

[At this point, a man who had placed advanced notice for 5 packs of noodles came back to collect. He told the guy that he didn't want chilli for one of the packs. So the store replaced it for him and the one pack of 'mistake' was left sitting on the side.]

When the chap heard my order, he said to the order taker that there was already a packet ready to go, i.e. the 'mistake'. Order taker said, "that's mee kia lah". So I thought, "good, you noticed."

I stood on the side, waiting patiently for my orders. I trusted my orders to be right and my trust was misplaced. Sigh, I got home and no prizes for guessing that the packet of 'mistake' was given to me. I was completely angry for that moment. Angry because I was too trusting, angry because the store thought they could bully me, angry because I bought the noodles for my family and I want to give them what they wanted.

To be frank, if they had asked me if I wanted to take the mee kia, I would have considered it. To use this sort of underhand means to push a pack of $2.50 noodle is beyond me. I won't be patronizing the store anymore, irregardless whether the noodles are nice or not because I do not condone this type of behaviour.

I was invited to a birthday dinner at Hua Yu Wee. Going into the restaurant felt like taking a leap 10 years back in the past and I can't help but feel nolstagic.

We had a myraid of food but what stood out for me was the seafood mee sua and black pepper crab. The mee sua could be mistaken for bee hoon from the onset, but the slight softness was the dead giveaway. The mee sua was not saucy but yet not dry. The flavour was really good - smokey and robust.

Next I had the black pepper crab. The doneness was really to perfection. The black pepper sauce is not "tar-like" ala Eng Seng but it flavoured the sweet crab meat really well. It could get too "peppery" after a while but I could deal with it. 2 Thumbs up!

If only it was not so far out there, I would definitely be back (and ignore the SIA uniform that the aunties were donning).

The restaurant, with its known location as the former Oso Ristorante and a relatively moderate price point, has the right things going for them. Well, the decoration and setting are a little dated since Oso days but I would not pick bones about it since I think design is generally lacking in restaurants.

The focaccia bread (complimentary) could have been a hit if not served cold. I would let that slide. The initiative to rewarm the bread when the starters came was a pleasant surprise but then, when the bread came back, warm they were but rubbery they became! That was the result of our dear waiter's clever idea of reheating bread using the microwave. SIGH!

The starter was the Capricci salad. I would have thought the namesake salad should be a strong dish that was special and memorable, but that was not the case. It was just a salad.

The main course was salmon fillet stuffed with leeks and green peppers with cognac sauce and grilled asparagus. The salmon fillet was slightly too cooked but bearable. My gripe was that the fish probably seen better days.

The tagliatelli carbonara with seafood and parmesan cheese sounded interesting and to be fair, it tasted pretty decent. But it congealed almost immediately so we really had to rush through the pasta. Good thing we shared this.

Dessert was a strawberry mousse with lemon sorbet. The lemon sorbet was puckering sour but refreshing.

Finally, we had coffee. I really liked this coffee (I forgot to take down the brand though). It was aromatic, strong yet not bitter.

I am usually not so harsh but the last straw came when I was being asked for feedback on my meal by the manager/head waiter but it was obvious he was patronizing and could not care less. SIGH.

ETA (20 Jun 09)
Dear Capricci management,

I appreciate you taking the time to log in and provide a response.
I could tell from your reply that you took note where your restaurant did well (ie. value). That is good.

However, I sincerely hope that your restaurant do not choose to be disillusioned and hope for the best that your assumption that the customer perhaps had a bad day would be a good enough excuse to continue running your restaurant the way it is.

When my meal was not up to par, I could tell myself, "I acknowledge that sometimes, a restaurant just has a bad day", and choose to keep quiet about my experience, but then, I would be the disillusioned one and I believe it would not be fair to Capricci as well, if not given the fair chance to improve. I really hope the comments from your customers are taken seriously. All the best.

My rum and raisin was not too sweet but not much rum detected. The texture was very milky and thin, and I had difficulty convincing myself I was eating gelato. It started to melt very very quickly so I had to eat it super fast like there was no tomorrow.

The price for a scoop is not cheap, considering its "ulu" location ($3.20 for single scoop + 0.30cents for waffle cone). The waffle cone was not bad, a bit too sweet though but crunchy.

Don't mind coming back if I was asked to go, but otherwise, I wouldn't be rushing back anytime.

The girlfriends wanted to have brunch and one of them wanted to try Mimolette. Since I had the wheels today, we drove there. The restaurant is located out of the way near the Saddle Club. The street was really narrow and turning in was a nightmare because of cars coming from the opposite direction.

That aside, the cute little country house that was the restaurant was a pleasant and comforting sight. To me, having brunch means sitting out on the patio but even in the shade, the heat was unbearable so we snucked back indoors.

The brunch menu was frankly quite disappointing. The options were sparse and ordinary. The amount of food also did not seem to justify the price tags.

Good thing I had a bit of an upset stomach and needed not that much food (I am otherwise a big eater) so I got the french toast filled with mango and mascarpone cheese. The eggy toast was not bad but could be served warmer. The filling was luckily not that rich nor sweet but complemented the french toast nicely. The little shooter glass of maple syrup was also very decent.

I found the huge wad of fresh whipped cream unnecessary, performing the supporting role of filling up a good half of the plate.

The scone was large but a little dry.

The best thing was the latte. Right temperature, good aroma and lovely crema.

My first time at Moomba during lunch fell short because I expected a finer sort of dining.

Lunch crowd was almost all business people around the CBD area. Business was brisk but the service was relatively decent with food and drinks served in good timing.

The room's acoustic was off though, together with the ventilation. I felt a little stuffy and hard to have a conversation without having to 'huh' a few times.

The food was a 2-course set lunch @ $38, which to me, is relatively expensive compared to other restaurants. The main course portion was substantial though so at the end, I was ok with it.


1) beetroot and roasted pumpkin salad with feta and mustard seed dressing. This dish was nicely put together with right balance of flavours but there was TOO MUCH dressing that the leaves were drowned. although the portion seemed small but the heavy dressing made it heavy (duh)

2) squid cakes are suppose to be a specialty but honestly the little croquettes were just okay. The chopped squid was distinct but rubbery.

3) main course was seabass with potatos (very soft and starchy in a tasty way), doumiao (pea shoots) and a bit of mushrooms and a brown sauce. Fish was very fresh and I love the crispy skin. Good, but not memorable.

After the 2 rich courses I was stuffed until dinner.

I was there with 2 girlfriends for dinner. The boss (impatiently) recommended we take a 3-person portion "sam lo hor fun" for $15 and 2-person portion of XO fish soup (without noodles) for $12.

The "sam lo" tasted fine and the portion was indeed just nice for three of us. Though I felt it was overpriced, ok, I would still pay for it. The XO fish soup on the other hand, came in a large bowl full of vegetables and soup and 6 slices of fish. Yes, $2/slice of fish. The soup was thick and milky but I could really not taste any XO or the depth of the stock. Totally not worth it.

I am sure there are better and cheaper versions around.

The girlfriend and I were walking around looking for some lunch and Bella Pizza was right there in front of us so we entered. An (Italian?) young chap greeted us with a smile and a server came by quickly to take our orders for drinks.

The menu had appetizers, small selection of pastas and a relatively large selection of pizzas (red and white). I was tempted to order a pizza just because the restaurant's name seems to suggest that pizza is their specialty dish, I felt like pasta, and ordered a linguine frutti de mare ($20). The girlfriend got a pasta as well, tagliolini with Italian sausages and truffle cream sauce ($20). We also ordered a baby spinach salad with avocado, shrimps and mango ($15) to start.

The salad was quite generous and the lemon vinegrette really paired well with the sweet mango, creamy avocado and crunchy shrimps.

Before we were quite done with our salad, the server popped by to ask if it was alright to serve our pastas then. It was apparent that the pastas were already cooked and ready to serve, because as soon as we said "err, ok", he brought them over. As it was, the pasta was already slightly way past al dente (but not very soft yet). That led me to wonder what state the pastas would have been if we had said "no, please serve them when we are done with the salad". They would probably leave the pastas sitting under the heater.

Anyway, I was pleased with the portion and taste of my seafood pasta (other than the doneness of the pasta). The seafood was plentiful (a large shrimp, conchs, 1 scallop, lots of vongole and lots of calamari). The calamari was a bit chewy though. But the tomato sauce was thick and rich and went well with the seafood and pasta. My only main gripe was that the dish was very oily. Really oily. Like, a pool of oil oily. I felt sick in my stomach after my meal, not knowing how much of the oil I had consumed if there was still a pool remaining. Eeks.

Service was quite attentive with water filled up constantly. Overall, I find the whole place very average. Price point is the only attractive factor so won't be in a hurry to come back.

I like that the restaurant had comfy couches that I could just sit all afternoon in. The food was very mediocre, and tasted very "homemade" (which in my mind means that they were just edible enough to fill stomach).

What I would recommend is the waffles and their gelatos. The waffle was thick, bouncy and fluffy, with a slight hint of eggy goodness and no floury taste.

While it was hot and the crust was still crispy, it was extra delicious with cold gelato. My personal favourites are: green tea with red bean and the sweet potato with chestnuts. I think 2 scoops of gelato is just nice with one waffle. Not to mention, it was sweltering today so an extra scoop was necessary.

At this outlet, the service rather slow though. Tables were not cleared and there were no smiles. But I would return to any Haato outlet for the waffles.

I was anticipating a lovely dinner with the girls. I love al fresco settings and wish all restaurants have one.

Anyway, we wanted to share a soup and chose the seafood cioppino ($10). There was generous seafood (squid, mussels, fish and shrimp) but the soup was really gross. It was tepid for one, but the main issue was that it tasted really fishy. It was almost like drinking water you clean your fish with.

I had the mushroom ragout pie ($16) because pie just seems very Australian and befitting of an Aussie restaurant. Hmmm, in summary, I was not wow'd. There was nothing really wrong with the pie -- it had a lovely crisp pie crust but the filling was rather skimpy with an imbalance of potato over mushrooms.

I was rather disappointed at the side vegetables. There was a bit of mesclun salad overdressed with olive oil and cold freezer-type peas and carrots mix.

I tried a bit of the crabmeat linguine which was pedestrian - not bad just not particularly good.

Dessert was a decent chocolate molten cake. I liked how the chocolate lava gushed out of its crust and "sauced" the vanilla ice cream.

Service crew was very attentive and friendly. Thumbs up!