Been trying to avoid going to 211 for many years but was finally persuaded to go. Ate there when they opened and it wasn't interesting, it was pretentious Italian / Western fare. Has improved a bit but still uncertain how to classify it.

Food: Had a pasta and riso dish. Both used the same ingredients: squid pieces, large prawns, and blue mussels. Was hoping to get some clams but no chance. Did it qualify as seafood - yes but Italian dishes without clams !!?? Both were tasty but a really heavy hand with the full cream.

Ambience: Comfortable but noisy. Need to sit outisde - hey, but I'm Singaporean who needs aircon.

Value: Reasonable if you use the DBS card. Kena pay $3.30 for a Sprite and $4 for a cranberry juice which was part of the offer from DBS one for one but buy two drinks deal.

Service: Friendly by disorganised. Lots of smiles but not well trained as waiters.

Wanted a relaxed easy lunch - and elected to try Rochester. Up the flight of stairs and into Rochester. Lovely surrounding and very Western setting.

Food: Ordered their Eggs benedict which came in a huge plate with 2 eggs, loads of bacon, muffin and a small portion of rosti. Partner had their omelette with ham and cheese which came with a cheese sausage, could not finish to ate the omelette too. Great tasting but maxxed out my quota for eggs. Very limited menu - seems the brunch menu is more for drinks and desserts - more for tai tais than for beer guzzling men.

Ambience: Best part of Rochester is their inviting outside seating (not for me - I need airconditioning). Indoor seating was awful, sofas with no dining tables and chairs, we sat on a high chair and ate off their high bar-style table. Had a live band that sang rather mournfully.

Value: Pretty stiff for eggs.

Service: Although not crowded, staff not attentive - in early switch off mode at about 1.30pm.

The other Fei Fei is at Joo Chiat with some branches. However, I've tasted their char siew wanton noodles and it is really not that memorable. I chanced upon this Fei Fei in the West, at Yuhua, Jurong East and it is the best char siew noodles I've eaten. Thought that is was Kim San Leng - but Fei Fei is currently (Nov08) the best. But be aware that they start selling at about 8.30am and are usually sold out by lunch time.

Run by a lone ranger, who starts at 6pm prepares the meats, seasons and roasts it on site. Only ready to start serving at about 8.30am. He also cooks the noodles and serves assisted by an order taker.

Food: Delicately roasted duck, "siew yoke" and their best is the char siew. Made from meat with about 20% fat, the crackling created by high-heat roasting from their oven in the stall is out of the world. Very tasty and moist. Their duck and siew yoke are also good, but their char siew is the best. Noodles are slightly al dente and their soup stock is delicious. Need to try to know.

Ambience: One of the newer and hence cleaner food centers cum market in Singapore. High ceiling with comfortable tables and chairs. My only beef is inadequate parking.

Value: $2.50 per plate - still a good deal, mixed char siew and siew yoke goes for $3.00.

Service: Queue up lah! Everything cannot be good or else the noodles will be priced at $8, like Crystal Jade.

Tks to this magazine, we got a coupon for dinner buffet at Spice. The pleasant surprise was that the renovations were so well done compared to our last visit a few years ago, and that although advertised as a porridge buffet, porridge was only 10% of the items served - must try.

Food: I concentrated on the Jap food, chef was kind and provided thick (10mm thick) slices of swordfish, salmon and red snapper. Fresh and great tasting. Chef said that his tuns ia chilled from Japan - I usually avoid tuna as they are usually frozen but this was fantastic, not mushy but solid and showed no signs of thawing. Other dishes I tried were the sushi - unagi topping, pork chop and a caesar's salad, Dessert was fruits. Wife tried their dishes but found the porridge dishes lacking except for their ikan bilis.

Ambience: Nice decoration, we sat in a glass cuble next to a small fountain and food displays were regularly "cleaned" up.

Value: Great at one for one, but only till end Nov.

Service: Mervin, out waiter was the best - handsome too.

Having read so much about Friends at Jelita, decided to give it a try.

Food: Had the set lunch where I had French bean salad and my wife the mushroom soup, Both were delicious. The mains were pork scallops in cream sauce - delicious and my wife had the Silver Perch. The crispy fried edges of the fish were the best part. Desert was a disappointing bread pudding - a piece of cake would be better.

Ambience: Stylish contemporary finish with good table settings.

Value: Not so friendly for the food they serve.

Service: Challenged, one guy was serving about 5-6 tables and he seemed hassled.

Good experience but I do not need to be too friendly with them. We waited a long term for our mains - because the cook forgot to cook one dish. Waiter was nice enough to take off the $2 surcharge for truffle oil with the mushroom soup.

We went to Hong Lim to have the Outram fried kway teow, but unfortunately they were closed as it was Hari Raya, settled for this noodles anyway, not thinking and hoping that it would be tasty - what a surprise.

Food: Crunchy noodles in a black soy/mushroom/chicken sauce with a deep fried wanton on top. Char siew was not the best I've eaten by acceptable. Did not try their soy sauce chicken which looked pretty good.

Ambience: Hong Lim food center is quite run down, dark and not the cleanest (compared to some of the new hawker centers).

Value: $2 per plate - pretty good deal these days.

Service: Long queue but pleasant lady manning the ordering counter and you can place orders and come back to pick it up later. Very Fair

Quite a thrill to be served dinner in the dark with a giant Meryl Streep staring down at you. Had booked 2 lounge seats at the GV Grand (Gold Class) tickets at the Great World City last Sunday and watched Mama Mia, staring Meryl Streep sing Abba songs. Quite an excellence movie, but no so the food. We booked the seats late so had to settle with the front row seats smack in front of the screen and had Meryl Streep staring down as us as we ate the finger food.

Food: Reheated, pre-cooked food served at ridiculously high prices. We ordered a their finger food platter at $18 and were served 2 pieces of recyled prawns, popiah, mock crab claws, chicken wings mid-segments, mushrooms and bunch of wedges. All poor quality and deep fried in oil. Also ordered a $8 platter of dips with break sticks, this was a better dish - ice cold water was for free. Not much else to order. Beer cost you $10 per bottle ++.

Ambience: Very comfortable chairs, small dining table, blankets to cover your feet and table side service. Cold aironditioining.

Value: Poor, except for the free ice water. Tickets cost $30 per head.

Service: Good, friendly but not happy people when you order too few food items.

7th Milestone or "chit kor" in Hokkien is a very well known place for food. It was the wild west of Singapore in the 60s and 70s, a haven for gangsters who hid out in Jurong an ulu place at that time. Many of the hawkers were in a tent city at the junction of Jurong Kechil and Upp Bt Timah road and they served great food. Many of them have be relocated to the Beauty world food center and you still find some of the original folks there. A new entrant to the business is Fei Siong, starting with fishballs and then migrating to cooked food.

Food: A typical Zhi Car and seafood joint that serves up a hearty meal. We tried their fried rice and it had the correct "fire" in it. Their simple beef hor fun and their fish soup - tasty, correctly priced and good for a quick meal. Have not tried their other dishes yet as it was done in a hurry. Making it a point to try it another day. In the meantime - enjoy. A stall next to it run by Fei Siong serves up one of the better teochew mee - fish ball soup around. Must try their dry noodles - they serve a mean garlic based dry noodles or "mee pok tar".

Ambience: Open air restaurant overlooking a HDB car park. There is a great breeze in the evening. There is an aircon eating area round the corner from the open air place.

Value: Won't go bust eating here, an affordable place to eat during the downturn in the economy.

Service: Three servers (from Malaysia, my guess) provide prompt and friendly service.

What started as a small outlet for pies has now grown into a cafe that not only serves pies but get it.... crab bee hoon!! Wah !! How do pies jive with crab bee hoon? Is this some mish mash of fusion foods?

Food: Luckily the pies still taste good and meaty too. Most famous are their pepper pies - not cheap though. What I enjoyed was their avocado drink - creamy and full of avocado.

Ambience: Clean, bright and airy.

Value: Not so good now, prices gone up.

Service: Pleasant youngsters.

When I read Sumiko's review of this Indian restaurant I asked if it were possible that a Chinese-Jap girl can know what a good Idll is. After tasting the Idll, I concluded that she has not tried Idll from other shops in Singapore. What I could not understand is that they serve coffee, but no tea - there are tea houses all over India and this branch of a Chennai outlet does not serve tea. Tea drinkers - unite!!

Food: Vegetarian food only - meat eaters be forewarned. We ordered single pieces of most items, wade, onion uttam, ghee tosai, idll. Since we ordered a mixture, the price on the menu did not count and they were all reduced since we only had one serving each of the sauces. Tosai was great tasting and thin, went well with the mint, coconut chutneys, but the dahl curry was too thin. The wades (two types) were great and onion uttam interesting. Now to the Idll, I prefer the rice flour grains loosely bound together, the Idll here comes out looking like a Chinese steamed rice cake, with a "skin" over it and dense like the "wah koh kueh". Doesn't soak up the gravy and sauces. Idll - lost out to the other stuff.

Ambience: aircon, few seats, clean toilet and quiet surrounding, away from the main streets of little INdia.

Value: Expensive Indian food. The ghee tosai cost $3/- and NO MEAT!!

Service: Organised and pleasant, you can see that they were from India with minimal command of English unlike Singaporean Indians.