Came back here for the weekday buffet with my family after my last visit here with a friend on its weekend buffet about a month ago. 

I found that overall the food quality (though some dishes were a bit salty) and service level were consistent and equally good (staff were courteous and prompt in clearing the plates).

While the main dishes were the same as the weekend buffet, there were some "new" surprises for the appetisers which were quite good. The pixs I have uploaded here were the "new" dishes we have tried today and for those I have tried before, please refer to my previous post.

What is attractive is the price we were paying was much lesser than the weekend rate plus the credit card promotions!!! Its really a great value for money for so many dishes you can try here and you are also given return vouchers as well!!!

And of course, the restaurant was full house and so if you are planning to come even on a weekday, please make your reservation first!!!

Came here today with a friend for the weekend ala carte buffet. Generally, we were satisfied with the quality and spread of food, service level and nice ambience.

The restaurant is very new as it is opened not too long ago and very bright and quite nicely decorated with wall paintings and decorations since it is still CNY period. With the background music and open kitchen concept, it really enliven the dining experience.

We were greeted politely and ushered to our seat promptly as we have made a reservation. To our surprise, the restaurant was fully booked and occupied with even a number of "potential" walks-in waiting outside for tables and the restaurant had to turn away some customers. So, if you want to come to dine here, make sure you make your reservations in advance to avoid disappointment.

From where we were seated, we could have a good view outside Serangoon Road, facing Fortuna Hotel and see vehicles/people passing by and yet a good view of the shoppers walking past outside the restaurant!

To begin with the buffet, which started from 11.30am to 3.00pm, you could help yourself first with the starters and appetisers (such as salad, braise duck, pork belly, peas and vegetables, fried fish pieces etc) at the cooking booths.

Then you can place your unlimited orders on the main dishes from the menu (by meat, seafood, noodles, soup category), about 20 over. We have tried most of the dishes and agreed with the former reviewer that they were good, as the portion served was generous and tasty.

Among all, we liked the "Yi Pin Guo" soup most as we ordered 3 servings. It came with a hotpot and consisted of prawn dumpings, mushrooms, carrot and radish with pork ribs. The soup was tasty, clear and sweet. Very nice.

We also liked the Lychee Sweet and Sour Pork, Fried Yam pieces, Drunkard Prawns, Fried Flower Fish, Steamed Yellow Tail Fish and Seafood Tofu with Prawns. They were well done and nice. For the fish dishes, they were well marinated with the sauces, fresh and tender though we felt the sauce for the Yellow Tail was a bit "too salty" for us.

The other dishes like Nan Ru Chicken Wings, Fried Prawns Roll, Seafood Salad Roll, Fried Fish Slices, Deep Fried Prawn Sticks, Deer Meat, Fried Noodles, Loh Mee, Fried Pork Ribs with Garlic, Fried Bee Hoon etc were ok.

You could also help yourself with the drinks which other restaurants will charge you for them. The beverages consisted of cold and hot drinks like Ice Lemon Tea, Soft Drinks, Coffee, Teh Tarek though you will need to pay extra for the Chinese Tea. It will be good if Chinese Tea could be included in the spread~

Besides that, you could help yourself with the Cut Fruits (Grapes, Water Melon, Rock Melon, Pineapple, Dragon Fruit), Pastries (chocolate and vanilla cakes), Jelly Agar Agar with White Fungus or with Fruits, Gui Ling Gao with Honey. What a good spread!

Service was good as servers were polite and smiling throughout the serving. Initially, we waited quite a while for our ordered ala carte dishes (so we helped ourselves with the starters), then subsequently the ordered food came quite promptly, something very different from other ala carte buffet offered by other Chinese restaurants as they would take their time to cook your dishes! Used plates were also cleared promptly. It will be good if servers could help to replenish our plates and utensils too after they have cleared the used ones. It would be perfect.

Halfway through our dining, the captain came to us and requested to change our seats as they would like to help another group of customers to join the tables. They were polite and courteous in asking and so we obliged. They shifted our entire table to another corner but done so promptly and professionally, without affecting us too much.

Value for money, good! As you could try a lot of dishes especially HENG HWA dishes, starters and desserts, it was good value for money. Furthermore, with the spending, we were given a return voucher and made it a more worthwhile deal!

We have plans to come back again soon to try either its buffet dinner or weekend high tea!

A good try for those who like HENG HWA dishes!

(Actually wanted to give a 7.5 rating for some areas but because of this new page setting which only allow Full Number rating, therefore, they have to be awarded 7 since they were not ready for Raing 8!)

Located at the corner opposite Fort Canning and behind Park Mall, this lodge is quite "hidden" and will not be obvious for passers by if you don't take a 2nd look. Generally, the environment here is quiet and transquil.

The cafe is located at the 1st floor and was not crowded when my friend and I visited. It was quite big and could easily accommodate more than 100 diners at any one time. Ambience wise was ok though looked a bit "old" with the furniture and setting. I felt a bit dim as we were seated near to the windows and so it was all right.

For lunch, you could choose for the Lunch Buffet or Set Lunch, which we chose the latter. You can choose either Fish and Chips that came with mixed salad and coleslaw or Honey Baked Chicken that came with buttered rice, carrot and zucchini. We ordered both.

The fish and chips were quite well done and marinated. The fish was soft and tender and the coleslaw was good too. My friend commented that the baked chicken was well roasted and the rice had a nice fragrance though a bit overcooked. The portion served was quite generous.

Our set lunch also came with Soup of the Day (Mushroom Soup), Dessert of the Day (Ice Cream) and Coffee or Tea.

All these for $9.90 (before taxes).

Service was fine and prompt, perhaps was due to the fact that when we dropped by, there were not too many diners. Staff were also courteous and polite.

Generally we were satisfied and felt that it was quite well value for money and would like to try the buffet lunch next time.

Do drop by to try!

Whenever I am around this area, I will dropby to try the "Zhao Pai QQ Noodles" and so today is no exception but it has been quite a while since my last visit here, except to find that the price has increased.

There were only a handful of customers when my friend and I reached there as it was just minutes past noon where the lunch crowd was not present yet but within minutes, the eating house is almost packed of lunch diners.

We ordered the small bowl of "Zhao Pai QQ Noodles", a dry and a soup version (both at $3.80 each and if you want a big bowl, it will be $4.80).

The portion was all right and noodles were as usual, quite Q and springy which was good. The seasame oil and fried shallot oil have done their wonders by increasing the fragrance of the noodles. You will need to help yourself with the chilli at the counter, which I find its not spicy enough for me, if not it would be perfect.

Ingredients wise, there were green vegetables (xiao bai cai), char siew (which I suspect its their self-made version, ok), some minced pork and 3 pathetic small wanton. The wanton was ok but indeed very small in size which I don't think I can feel I am eating a wanton! The dry version noodles came with a bowl of soup which was quite nice but later I felt very thirsty and wondered if alot of MSG were added.

My friend commented that the soup noodle was fine, in terms of taste and portion.

Overall, the noodles were satisfactory.

Service wise needs improvement in terms of pace and speed of taking orders and serving and the chairs were not comfortable (like school canteen bench with no back support). In addition, utensils and condiments were placed at the order counter (instead of on each table) which was not convenience to the diners! Other than that, a good place for those noodles lovers!

Was here with a friend for the buffet lunch on the first day of CNY. It was about 60% full. As usual, all customers will need to pay first before they can proceed into the restaurant. After we had made our payment, we proceeded into the restaurant ushered by a waiter who greeted us and showed us to our seat. It was table 62 in the inner section. Lighting was dim though adequate for you to see while you eat, but the chair was uncomfortable. It was more like a bench (without back support) or stool and when you have seated for a while, you will feel "tired" with no back support! As it was CNY, the restaurant also played CNY music and songs to enliven the spirit! From where we were seated, we could have a good view at the cinema lobby where people were queuing to buy movie tickets! The variety of food was rather limited (as compared to other branches and did not go along to its recent ad of "20% more dishes"). It ranged from the Japanese food like salmon, sashimi, a reasonable spread of sushi maki and soba, fruit salad, fresh prawns and tempura etc; Chinese dishes included Ee Fu noodles, Pineapple fried rice, sambal sotong, fried chicken and vegetables, peiking duck, kueh pat tee, crabstick, shark fins and sea cucumber soup, mee sua and dim sum like paos and siew mai. The Western BBQ dishes included various kinds of meat such as black pepper chicken chop (well done), beef, salmon (good), lamb, squid, satay (good) and eel while others included pasta (very bland), pizzas (hawaiian and mushroom flavour) and baked oysters, mussells and a section of pastries, desserts, ice cream, fruits and a free flow of hot and cold drinks! This is the section I feel the food is quite tasty and nice as the meat were well marinated and cooked adequately. The western BBQ food impressed me most and it was on the spot cooking based on your order and they would serve you when the food was ready. The portion served was generous. I liked the Chicken Chop and Chicken Satay most. The only issue is that the chef have dipped the satay into the sauce and unlike the traditional serving where you have to dip it yourself (maybe that was part of their good service but no all people like to have their satay dipped into the sauce) and there were also no cucumber or onions to come along. Despite this, they still taste good! As for the soup, they were really good! The shark fins soup and sea cucumber soup were hot and well done, especially for the former and definitely worth trying for. For the former, it was not too liquid but thick and you could taste the ingredients (which I had 3 bowls). The pastry was ok with some good variety and that also went for the desserts (lychee fruit cocktail, yam paste and tapioca with coconut cream, mango and orange pudding etc), fresh fruits of water melon, kiwi, oranges, papayas, dragon fruit and honey dew, 12 flavours of ice cream! (you could try all flavours like mango serbert, orange, vanilla, chocolate, corn, jackfruit, strawberry etc). One good thing was that you could have free flow of drinks that included lemonade, peach tea, blackcurrent and orange juices or milo, hot tea to cuppucino to expresso etc! Overall, we were quite satisfied with the food variety and quality. As for service wise, the clearing of used plates was quite fast and staff also served the ordered food quite fast without the need to wait too long. However, be forewarned that the washrooms were dirty and smelly. In fact, they should be regularly kept clean. The price? It was $27 per person, we felt it was ok and value for money especially it was on the 1st day of CNY where most restaurants were either closed or mark up the prices, and taking into consideration of the variety of food served. If they could include some YUSHENG as part of the buffet, it will be much better, for the festival~ Afternote: While I try to upload the photos at least 3 times but the server always displayed "error and have to re-upload" again. So apologize if I could not upload the photos.

Was here for the buffet porridge with my colleagues and based on the price we paid and the food offering, its quite "a good deal". Quality of food is reasonable with some dishes quite well done.

The buffet spread had more than 12-15 main dishes which included curry chicken, steamed and fried egg, mui choy and kou rou, salted egg, salted vegetables, soy sauce chicken, chinese sausages, tow kee, ikan bilis with peanuts, fried bee hoon, fried vegetables like cabbage and tang hoon, green beans etc. They also served fruits (water melon) and ice water where you can also order ice tea.

Value for money? Yes, worth it at the price over the quantity and quality of food offered.

However, be warned that there will be a long queue of people waiting and so if you want to try it, make sure you go there early so that you can have a good seat and also help yourself with the freshly cooked dishes. And of course when too many people around, you will find that its quite squeezy and "cramp" and also warm as the air-con is not sufficient to cool you down...Despite all these, good to try!

Used to frequent this stall often when I was working around queenstown area. So whenever I pass by this area, I will sure drop by to eat the popiah. The stall is located in the food centre which is very quiet even during lunch hours as many stalls are not opened.

The popiah here is good and nice as the ingredients used are fresh. I like the sauce and chilli which is very nice, not too sweet (at least to me) while the chilli blends well with it and the garlic, a must for popiah to add on the fragrance and taste.

Ingredients include the bean sprouts (very fresh and springy), chinese sauage, prawns, egg and turnips. They are cooked well and nice. The skin of the popiah is handmade by the stallholder on the spot, which is fresh and Q. You can also order your popiah DIY buffet from the stallholder. 

A nice popiah~

Have visited this place quite sometime ago and understand that it has undergone a renovation last year and thought of "giving it a chance" to see if any improvement has been made to the quality and spread of the buffet. So my friend and I revisited this place today for the weekend high-tea buffet since our last visit in Oct 2008.

Now the hotel was named "Holiday Inn Orchard City Center" though the cafe remained its name as "Windows on the Park".

The cafe has indeed undergone a good makeover and now it looks more classy, bright and soothing. Very comfortable and we were seated at the window pane where we could see the vehicles moving along the expressway and greenary within the Istana. Nice view!

It has also rearranged the various food counters and now come with 2 live cooking stations. However, there was no live cooking session today and some of the food here are "DIY" though a chef was busy preparing pancake and whaffle for the diners.

The spread was not huge (as compared to other high-tea buffet offered by other cafes). However, it has quite a decent spread, covering Western, Japanese, Asian and Chinese, Pastries and Desserts dishes which I will briefly discussed.

The Western counter had a reasonable spread of various Salad and Greens (OK), Tuna Bread and Sandwich (Good), Fried Chicken Wings (So So), Kebah Chicken (OK); Japanese food consisted of only Salmon (OK) and 3 types of Maki (Forget it) where the latter were quite hard and not fresh (think they make it very early and rested for a long time). Asian/Chinese food included Roti Prata and Curry Chicken (OK), Curry Puff (OK), Goreng Pisang (OK), Self Made Rojak (OK), Self Made Fish Ball Kueh Teow (OK), Fish Porridge (Good), Herbal Chicken Soup (Very Good), Hainanese Chicken Rice (Good), HK Fried Noodles (OK), Fried Wanton and Guo Tie (OK), Stir Fried Fish (Good) etc.

The Pastry section has quite a reasonable spread of desserts, nonya kuehs and cakes from which the Kueh Lapis and Chocolate cake stood out. The others like Pandan Cake, Mango Cake, Tapioca with Coconut Sauce were generally OK.

The Durian Panget is a must try (very fresh and tasted bitter which is good) and mixed well with the waffle and pancake where you can also add M&Ms, Chocolate Chips and other mixes. There was also a fruit section with the standardized kind of cut fruits.

You can also help yourself with the self made beverage counter that offered bandung (OK), Orange Juice (Good) and Ice Lemon Tea (OK). You can also make various types of coffee, like Cuppacino. Latte, Expresso with the Coffee Machine or Tea with Sacchets being made available.

Service was good and prompt as used plates were cleared promptly and servers were generally polite too despite that the cafe was about 70-80% full.

Value for money? Reasonable. Though the spread was not as extensive as compared to other high tea buffet we have been to, we felt that the cafe has taken effort to try to improve its standard and food quality (in fact, today's visit was definitely much better than our previous visit) which we were pleased. Though there is still much room for further and better improvement, we felf we should give it a chance to prove itself as we understand that the cafe is now headed by a new Executive Chef who took initiative in offering new dishes and introducing live cooking stations.

Time will prove its determination in seeking improvement and if it can keep up the good work, I am sure its business with flourish in the near future.

In conclusion, my friend and I were quite satisfied with our dinning experience here today as before we came we were quite skeptical (due to our former bad experience) about its food quality and standard.

Have not been patronizing this stall since my office has shifted which I missed very much its Mee Siam especially.

I happended to pass by this place last evening and surprisingly found that the stall was still operating. Based on my previous understanding, all the food would be sold out after the lunch hour and so I asked the stall owner whom I addressed as Uncle, if he was still doing the business which he said yes. He told me nowadays he cooks one more pail of gravy for the Mee Siam to meet the demands and so sometime he will still be selling till evening.

So I ordered 2 take-away Mee Siam ($3) as I was meeting a friend for dinner elsewhere. I requested the gravy and bee hoon to be separated as I won't be eating it any sooner which Uncle happily obliged. He also told me he put his heart to prepare the food and so not surprising STP approached him to recommend his food which he proudly pointed an article to me. Haha!

Anyway, the Mee Siam is still as good as before. Sourness and Sweetness, with generous serving of gravy, eggs, prawns and some tiny fried japanese ikan bilis (to add flavour) which was very good for me. Its just one of the best Mee Siam I have tried. Even though Uncle also sells Laksa, Mee Rebus and other kinds of noodles, I like the Mee Siam best.

As there was no crowd then, Uncle who is extremely friendly, chatted with me and telling me about his plan after the place is undergoing renovation which he and his wife will be taking a good break and go around "walk walk see see" to pass time and recharge themselves and prepare for the new stall.

As the place is undergoing renovation soon after CNY, so if you like Mee Siam, you should come and try or you will have to wait for quite a while before Uncle comes back with the business.

Great Mee Siam!

Visited this place this evening for dinner after meeting a friend nearby. It was not my first visit here as I did come for the lunch set meal about 1 year ago.

The restaurant is having a dinner set meal promotion ($10 per set) where you can pick from a list of about 12-15 set meals that included katsu or fish with rice or soba etc. So my friend and I ordered a Tori Teriyaki Chicken set ($10) and a Tori Katsu Gozen (Chicken cutlet that comes with Steamed Egg, 3 slices of Sashimi, Mixed Vegetables Salad and Tuna and also an ice-cream)($15.80).

Generally, the food was fine and quite ok, considering the price we are paying for. Both the teriyaki and gozen chicken were quite nicely done. The vegetables for the salad were quite bitter and the steamed egg was rather "watery". Other than that, everything was quite ok.

We ordered the green tea set ($1.20 per head) and the serving was free-flow. One comment was that the green tea served here was good, strong flavoured and fragrance, unlike any tea green we have consumed in other places.

Service was good. Servers were polite and attentive in clearing used plates and utensils and our tea were regularly refilled automatically without us requesting for it. Maybe it was due to the low patronage (only about 5-6 tables were occupied) and servers were extremely attentive.

Finally, ambience! Great!!! We were seated at the window seat where we could have a good view on Singapore River/Clarke Quay and it was extremely nice and amazing at night with the lights on and bumper boats with lights sailing through. The restaurant itself was also brightly and nicely decorated with orange lightings (vintage) and fish glass tanks with CNY decorations. The restaurant also played nice and soothing songs and music but again Western/Chinese themes instead of Japanese theme (this was what I commented before which is not consistent with its positioning as a Japanese restaurant!)

Generally, we were quite satisfied overall dining here and for those who are looking for "cheap and acceptable" Japanese food, you may like to consider this place! (but make sure you come at night to enjoy the nice night view)