Went there yesterday to have a Father's Day lunch. For lunch I gather they mainly do set-lunches, because that's all the menu showed, which suits us fine, actually.

Food wise, everything was ok, the sashimi, I venture to say, was really generous in portion and fresh.

But OHHHH THE SERRRVICCCCEEEEEE. (bangs head on wall)

The food cames in spurts. We all ordered different set lunches, and my dad's got served first. He got most of his food, and then they served my brother's hot dish (unagi omelette). then, they served us sashimi and tempura. Then the rice came. Then the pickles.... Then the miso soup. Then, my mum's grilled cod. Then when we thought it was all over, came 2 sticks of kushiyaki items that belonged in my dad's set. There must have been a good 5-10 mins between each interval where they served the food. Lao Niang was not happy.

I don't know if this is a Father's Day glitch, the restaurant was full, but STILL! Food OK, Service not. If you actually can accept having your pickles come in after your main dish, then fine. Food, objectively speaking is not bad.

We passed by a Madam Kwan's at the Pavillion, but we had already eaten, so when we went to Bangsar and spotted Mdm Kwan's, my friend couldn't give up the chance for us to eat the nasi lemak. I think she was inspired by the photos or something.

We ordered Nasi Lemak, Nasi Bojari (??), and Char Kway Teow. They were all great. The nasi lemak rice was fragrant, flavourful, not too oily. The curry chicken which accompanied it was also coconutty and the chicken pieces soft. Chili + Ikan Bilis was good too.

Nasi Bojari came with Prawns, Beef Rendang and tri-coloured rice that smelt a bit of garlic. Very interesting.

Char Kway Teow came with generous helpings of prawns and sotong, and had that wok-hei flavour.

Service standard was ok, nothing to rave about, but nothing to complain about either :P

All in all excellent! A bit pricey, but it's worth it.

Went there upon my friend's recommendation for "THE BEST STEAK IN THE WORLD" - well, I'm no steak connoiseur, but it was pretty damn good. You could very well miss it along Jln T.A Rahman, the exterior is so run down,so keep your eyes peeled!

The Coliseum has existed since 1929, and looks it. Even the waiter-uncle who took our order looks like he has been there all his life. Hahahah! Gruff service, old furniture, ceiling fans, an air-con that hardly seems to work, smoky interiors, a very old looking bar.

Food wise we had the baked crab which was really stuffed full of crabmeant and delicious. A friend had a mixed grill with brown sauce, and 2 of us had grilled steak, one with black pepper sauce and one with mushroom sauce. The black pepper sauce was excellent, fiery and rich, and so was the mushroom sauce. According to my friend with the mixed grill, the beef was gorgeous and soft, the chicken fragrant, and the lamb didn't have that 'lamb smell'.

My steak was medium well done, and it was very tender and beautifully pink on the inside. The steak is served on a sizzling plate and prepared right next to your table (explains the smokiness of the place).

Portions are huge. We also order French Onion soup and mushroom soup (these soups were unfortunately mediocre), and the steak came with a big grilled tomato, and a side salad. We couldn't finish everything.
No room for dessert! So sad. I would have like to try the banana fritters with ice cream that the next table ordered. Their fried rice looks good too! If you go to KL, must try!

Been there twice. The first was a supplier sponsered lunch ages ago, and the second was Mother's Day dinner last Sunday. Anyway, the location is really super unglam lah, so let's not talk about ambience ok? Standard Chinese restaurant with aircon, lots of round tables, PRC waitresses in black and white uniform. 2 LCD TVs switched to Channel 8 for 'entertainment'.

The cold crab is a must try! I had it both times, and I love the sweet taste of plain fresh crab, and the way the meat just comes off cleanly from the shell. They have this chili sauce which you can dip it in, which is quite nice too.

We had a braised vegetable - which was so soft and flavourful. One of the best veggie dishes I've tried. (Aiyah, eat seafood dinner standard veggie is Fried veggie in oyster sauce/garlic/belacan right...at least this is different)

Beef roll with enoki mushroom - ok only.

Foo-chow fishball soup - the pork stuffing inside is too salty and they are too heavy handed with the sesame oil.

Mini-buddha jumps over the wall - nice juicy abalone, but the rest is just 'standard'

Foo-chow noodle - It's thick noodles with this black sauce with seafood and vegetables...I thought it was a bit too salty, but I think it's not too bad...

Service wise was quite ok, there was more than enough staff to go around, and they do come and pour tea, refill hot water even without asking. The waitress who recommended the dishes knew her stuff, and knew how to 'agar' and will stop you from ordering more than you can finish, which is always nice.

It was not a very good experience, I'm afraid!

I went to Friends on a Friday evening, to celebrate my friend's birthday. There were about 3 servers from what I could see, and we were served by all 3 in the course of the evening. One was rather taciturn, but the other 2 were quite all right. Ambience wise, when we came in it was empty, so it was quite nice, but very soon the family crowd came in and there were kids all over the place.

As for the food, we ordered a Portobello mushroom to share, and honestly, it was...ordinary. It was ONE Portobello mushroom, topped with some tomato sauce (Ragu?), and then with mozarella cheese melted on top. Who can't do that at home? And that was a whopping $12.90.

For mains, I ordered the Greenland Hablibut, the birthday girl had Jumbo Scallops and Prawns, and another friend had the Duo of Sakura Chicken... My Halibut tasted like it did come from Greenland - fished up 2 years ago and frozen to death before being shipped here, defrosted and pan-fried. My fish and veggies were swimming in oil, as was my friend's Rosti, which she left half uneaten. Birthday girl's jumbo scallops and prawns was the best of the lot, except there was an absence of veggies or carbs to accompany the meal. The portions were quite small, which left us alot of space for....

Dessert, we had all 3 that was on offer, the Warm Valrhona Chocolate cake, the Lemon Pudding and a Fuji Apple and Rhubarb Crumble topped with Vanilla ice-cream. The Chocolate cake was quite ok - pretty standard, but we preferred the rhubarb crumble more. It had that nice tartness, and the combination of creamy ice-cream and crunch. Lemon Pudding was left half-uneaten because...it was not that nice.

Ane now for the worst part. For that not very satisfactory meal, of not very generous proportions. It came up to a whopping $160.00. For 3 people. No alcohol at all. Luckily there was a citibank promo for birthday girls, and we got 1 main free, but that still worked out to be $130.

For $130, I imagine 3 people can be satisfied at a number of much nicer establishments. I felt a bit bad suggesting this place to my friends!

The smell was pretty overwhelming, and honestly (maybe I'm the strange one), looking at all the fresh fish before eating it doesn't whet my appetite at all. Especially since some cuts didn't look that good, sitting all vacuum sealed in plastic bags in the display freezer.

Anyhow, we were a group of 4 last night, and we had the soft-shell crab and NZ greenlip mussels in white wine and garlic sauce for starters. We also shared oysters. (I'm an oyster virgin, and what can I say....me no like oysters. Fry it in an omelette, please!) For mains, we chose pan-seared tuna, tusk fish, barramundi and Black Cod (the other fish were char-grilled).

The Pan-seared tuna came, and we found that it was thoroughly cooked, instead of being ...pan-seared. So we returned it with not much problems.

The rest of the mains were pretty good. My barramundi was chargrilled to perfection, had the balance of 'char-ness' and yet not over cooked, so the flesh was still soft. Tusk-fish I thought was a bit on the tough-side, but I'm not familiar with that fish, so maybe it's naturally like that.

We also asked especially not to have potatos, and to have more greens, I think, if I'm not wrong, they replaced it with a slice of pineapple. which actually went quite well with fish!

Didn't stay for dessert (we went to Picotin), but I think I would have very much liked to try the Warm Valrhona Chocolate cake.

Service wise - they were ok, but I actually had quite a hard time understanding both of the wait staff that attended to us. They also gave us the wrong oysters (we were not oyster experts so it really made no difference to us, but it might offend some oyster lover?)...on the whole, ok lah. They were quite prompt in refilling the water, and exchanged the tuna without the fuss.

I would like to go back and try the Hot Oyster platter, and the warm chocolate cake! But maybe this time sit outside, and avoid the fish smell.

Ok, first things first - I only went there for dessert.

The setting is wonderful, it was novel, being an old horse stable and all, and everything was horse/racing centric. Sitting outdoors, among the greenery would have been really rather romantic, but it was raining lah. The seclusion of the place, coupled with yesterday's wet and slightly cold weather made me think I was not in Singapore.

We ordered the profiteroles (thanks to another reviewer's photos!), the sticky date pudding, and a rhubarb crumble. Had coffees and teas as well.

It was... visually exciting (especially the profiteroles), but hmmm truthfully all rather ho-hum.

The profiteroles were huge, but after a while, there's only how excited you can be with 3 puffs, with vanilla ice cream inside. Sticky date pudding was not as rich and warm and gooey and sticky as I'd like it to be. The rhubarb crumble, being rather tart and sour was a nice contrast to the rest of the desserts, but I wouldn't make a trip down just to have it.

Service-wise, ok lah. Not exceptional. There was also no beverage list (either that or we were not given one), so we had to ask what drinks they had, and the waiter was able to tell us, albeit as if he was having a hard time dredging it up from the far corners of his mind.

Hope to return one day and have a proper meal, and then maybe I'll give it a better review.

One rather irritating thing I face as a Hainanese, is that people like to ask me, "So, do you know how to cook Chicken Rice?". *roll eyes* Usually I will retort, "So, you are Hokkien, can you cook Hokkien Mee?"

Hainanese cuisine, I admit is not as refined or developed as Cantonese cuisine, but it is so much more than chicken rice and pork chops! It's mainly hearty peasant fare, and the taste is highly dependent on the quality and freshness of the ingredients. I went back to my Hainanese village years ago, and was BLOWN away by the plain boiled chicken there. There is NO WAY our farm-reared, abbatoir-slaughtered, chilled/frozen chickens can compare to a freshly slaughtered one that spent all its life foraging in the countryside. Don't even try. But I digress...

My parents are the sort who need to be dragged out, cajoled and threatened to eat out, especially to try out Hainanese eateries (too many disappointments), but they approve of Jin Wee!

We had the Stewed Pork Belly (oooooh!), the Pork Chop (ok, 'standard' lah), steamed fish, a fried veggie. I think we are all in love with the stewed pork belly, it has the suitable balance of saltiness, sweetness, thickness. The gravy is DIVINE with plain white rice.

I would say Jin Wee is more for dinner. I went there for lunch alone once, and the offering was plain 'chai-png' fare. Nothing special. It is best to speak to the servers, and to find out if there are any 'specials' of the day.

I have been there twice, once with friends, and I was so impressed that I brought my family there too.
We had:
The scrambled egg white and scallops in a potato basket - MUST try. Actually, apart from the scallops, the ingredients are super cheap, but mixed together, it was sublime. The flavour is simple yet comforting, and the mix of soft mushy egg-white and the crunchy potato basket makes for an interesting appetiser.

For prawns, we were torn between Jasmine Prawns and the Spicy Prawns with Walnut, and the manager kindly allowed us to get a mix of both in one dish. The Jasmine prawns were nice, the jasmine fragrance complementing the natural sweetness of the prawns well. But I think I prefer the stronger flavoured spicy prawns with walnuts, because of the extra crunch of the walnuts.

We also had Cod, which came in individual portions. The fish was very fresh, and the sauce was slightly herbal (well, it IS a herbal restaurant), but not overwhelming.

Some of the guests ordered the individual portions of double boiled soup, and I think they enjoyed it, but I am not soup-lover, so I didn't try.

We had a vegetable dish, with wolf-berries, and that was very nicely done.

Special mention of the dessert. We had the hot-caramalized sweet potato and yam. I think part of the enjoyment was in the participation in 'prepping' the dessert, but actually on hindsight, "it's only sweet potatos and yams and burnt sugar what!" But, it's not bad lah. Overpriced, but worth having once.

We also pre-ordered the Herbal Emperor chicken, but I found the chicken slightly dry, I very much prefer the one from Zhu Lin, and/or the shop next to it in Taman Sentosa, JB.

Service-wise, it was very good. The server would explain the herbs in the dishes, and the different health benefits. Most of the servers are from China, so it would help if you could speak Chinese, but the managers are always at hand to explain things if there are non-Chinese speaking diners.

Overall, I'd say Metropole is a place where they don't drown the natural flavours of their ingredients with excessive sauces, spices and gravies, and allows the freshness of the food to speak for itself. It's definitely healthier than your normal chinese restaurant fare.

First things first, my ideas of Japanese food has been influenced by all that watching of Japan Hour. You know, where you see the cook expertly cutting up the sashmi, using chopsticks to place fish roe delicately on the food as garnish. The hosts, waiting in anticipation for the food, take time to appreciate the presentation of it, and then as they taste the food, close their eyes in climatic delight, before exclaiming "Oiiishiii"...

So, I find Kuishin-Bo the very antithesis of Jap food. (Not that I am an expert in Jap food in anyway. Kuishin Bo-esque outlets in Japan might be a penny a dozen in Japan for all I know). The main draw I can see, is that it is a buffet, and you can eat your body weight in 'expensive' sashimi and no one will care.

BUT. Is this the way to appreciate Japanese food? (Or any food for that matter).

I was there a couple of weeks ago. It was a weekday night, and it was packed. I had sashimi. Once the sashimi was finished, the staff will just place more sashimi (goodness knows when they were sliced), on top of the old ice. To me it didn't seem quite hygenic. The tempura and fried stuff were all a bit 'dark', as if the oil has been re-used too many times. Sushi was generally ok, but they didn't look fresh. (Like they have been lying there forever)

For the cooked dishes, there were some interesting ones, like Duck and Bittergourd, Pork and Potato stew, well, the intention was good, but they were not very well-cooked. The potatos were undercooked, and a bit hard. Desserts were ok, I quite like the mochi, but the ice-cream was very 1990s Ponderosa-ish. i.e not the best ice-cream around lah.

The next day, I fell sick. I had the runs, and I got a 2-day MC. So you can imagine, I have kuishin-bo phobia now.

Kuishin-Bo - I think is really for young people with insatiable appetites and iron stomachs.