Girlfriend and I decided to drop by Melvado's after a post dinner walk at Botanical Gardens. I decided to check this place out after hearing of their signature brownies. It was a Sunday night at 8pm and the restaurant was quiet, with only a pair of ladies and a family of 4 seated in the cafe, other than ourselves.

We checked out the black and white kisses brownies. The brownie was piping hot, the chocolate (black & white Hershey's and the chocolate topping) is rich and isn't too sweet. Yummy! It costs $4.90 without any ice cream (which sets you back by another $1) and doesn't have any additional 10% service tax nor 7% GST. This is certainly very reasonable pricing. I noted payment by AMEX and NETS gives you additional discounts which makes this place really worth it try.

This cafe serves a full array of main courses and drinks. Its a quiet environment which offers air conditioned dining and al fresco. We certainly would like to return to check out the main courses on our next visit.

They also offer flat screen TV which was showing a movie from cable television. Thankfully the volume wasn't too loud and you can still enjoy a conversation without being distracted by the movie if you sit furthur away from the television set.

The only problem is that indoor seating capacity is limited, leaving you with al fresco dining, which in turn can be uncomfortable if the weather is warm.

This is my 1st visit to Thaipan. I was introduced to this restaurant courtesy by a food tasting session organised by HGW and the restaurant. Contrary to what the name implies, the restaurant focuses on Chinese dishes zichar style instead of Thai-chinese food. The only thai dish is probably the tom yam soup.

The menu I tried with the group was suggested by the owner, Paul. He started Thaipan right from its inception 5 years ago when its 1st branch opened in Mandarin Gardens and was the best person to help explain and answer queries of the dishes. Here are the dishes we tried, not necessarily in order in which we were served.

The 1st dish was Poached Fresh Prawns in Chinese Herbs. It has fresh juicy prawns soaked in clear soup with dates and wolfberries. The soup retains the sweetness of the prawns and the fragrance of the herbs without out the herbs' taste being overbearing.

The Thaipan special butter squid is another favourite. The taste of butter, egg yolks, spices mixed with the squid makes the dish really tasty. The squid is not as chewy as I'm used to. The chef had specially pretreated the squid to make it this way. Personally I don't miss the chewy nature of squid. According to Paul, it was originally meant for crabs. The owner decided to use the batter for squid because he likes squid. Its less common for other restaurants to do the same with squid because of the amount of time and effort required to make the batter and the meagre returns if it was used on squid rather than crabs. However, they decided to stick with it so that it can be a signature dish for the restaurant.

Seabass in Asam curry is more curry than what you expect of the usual Asam dishes. The sour taste of Asam dishes is not evident here. Apparantly the owner wanted the dish to have a thick curry gravy flavour rather than the usual watery nature of Asam dishes. Nevertheless, I enjoy having the gravy on rice. What makes this dish stand out is that the fish is fresh. Its easier for kitchens to use less fresh fish for curry dishes since the strong curry taste tends to hide them and I'm glad Thaipan is honest with their food.

Thaipan beeboon crab is another tasty dish. The beehoon is the dry type and is tasty after being fried with the crab. The only weakness is that the shells are very thick. The owner mentioned the reason for choosing crabs from Philippines, which have thicker shells and tougher flesh rather than the popular Sri Lankan crabs is due to harvesting of farmed Sri Lankan crabs before they are old enough, as a result of trying to satisfy the strong market demand. As a result, the younger crabs haven't got to develop adequate maturation of their flesh, resulting in shrinkage of the flesh after they are cooked. Although this happens only occasionally, but the owner decided to avoid creating disappointment to the customers altogether and so settled on a more consistent quality of crabs from Philippines.

Thai olive rice is an interesting addition for Chinese dishes. Its appearance is more common in Greek restaurants actually. The chef did it well by pairing it with minced pork, sliced cucumbers and carrots.

Stir fried french beans with dried shrimps is a simple yet tasty dish. The group as a whole enjoyed the dish because the french beans were crunchy without being undercooked. Some restaurants either overcook the vegetable till they are soft or end up undercooking the dish to try to retain the crunch. Honestly, my mum does an equally good dish of crunchy french beans with shrimps, so I don't think it stands out.

Braised trotter with steamed buns. I must first confess that trotters are not my cup of tea. Trotters are well cooked, soft and easily seperated from the bones and skin. Steamed buns are bite sized and goes well with the dark sauce which isn't too salty. I think this is an average dish.

Dessert was yam paste with gingko nuts. This is very different from the usual yam paste in restaurants because its slightly salty. Being Teochew, I've tasted different types and standards of yam paste but never a salty variety. The paste itself was alright, but unfortunately I don't take to salty dessert well. I'm not saying its a bad dish, but it requires an acquired taste.

In general, the restaurant has several dishes worth trying and it tries to be different by coming up with their own dishes, so its worth coming to try its concoctions. It also offers the service of cooking dishes off the menu at your request and cooking your fish/crab if you are bringing your own at your own request.

It also doesn't charge cockage fee if you bring your own wine, which is a service not easily found in restaurants in Singapore. The owner emphasised that although they have a wine list, but its not long. Their aim is for guests to bring their favourite wines without paying additional charges for it.

Thaipan offers a restaurant dining experience yet its price doesn't similar reflect restaurant type of price (read we ate seabass, crab bee hoon and poached fresh prawns). Parking on weekends however could be a problem, as it usually is in Changi Village. Thankfully the restaurant is housed in Civil Service Club, which offers its space for non members.

Diners who have come to Changi Village to dine before would know the venue offers a boardwalk not far away, so you can enjoy some sea breeze and quiet moments with your date.

I must admit I don't regularly eat Indian food in Singapore, which is predominantly the South Indian variety in the hawker centres. The only experience I had of North Indian food was during my 10 day backpack trip in Himachal Pradash 4 years ago. I was invited for a food tasting session this time and jumped at the chance when I heard it served coastal Indian cuisine, something which I've yet to experience. Basically for food tasting, I'm usually game to try unique dishes and love familiar dishes which are done outstandingly.

Set along the Singapore River in Clarke Quay, the 2nd story restaurant offers you a view of the crowd downstairs. The interior is cosy and crowded with Caucasians. Service is fairly prompt although the restaurant was nearly full on a Friday night. Although the restaurant is not choked up with its tables, but it can get rather noisy when the crowd is in.

For starters, I had the Murgh Yakhni Shorba, which is chicken soup with cumin and lemon juice. The spicy soup with chicken cubes was a good start to the dinner. My friend had Southen Traditional Masam, which was basically pineapple soup. It didn't go down well with her, but this is mainly due to personal preference. I've got to admit this is an acquired taste. Many other diners had the crab soup, which was creamy and tasty and well received.

For appetisers, we tried spicy chicken, wasn't as spicy as the name suggested and chicken was soft and tasty.

The Malabari trio, which was a combination of prawns, chicken and lamb was so well received I was lucky to grab a piece of it before it was taken up by the rest.

Peshawari Aloo was oven grilled potato with cottage cheese, almonds. This was another new dish for me which is worth a try. Lamb kebab was so so.

For main course, we had tandoori lobster. This was very well done and was 1 of the chef's special. The meat was fresh and well marinated with spices.

We also tried an assortment of chicken, mushroom, fish curry. We were advised that white rice goes best with the curry, so we didn't try any of the flavoured rice also offered on the menu. The curry didn't have a heavy spicy aftertaste and wasn't too hot, so it should go well with most who aren't used to too much curry.

Parat wale baingan, which was eggplant lasagne stuffed with cheese and bell pepper was another interesting dish. It wasn't spicy and the cheese didn't give me the 'jelat' feeling even though it was the last dish of the dinner. This is another dish worth a try.

We also tried Roomali roti, which is a very light and thin roti which goes very well with all curries as it doesn't fill you up as the usual roti prata does and allows you to take more roti to sample the various curries. Garlic naan, parantha were the other staples which we tried. They were warm and crispy and also went well with the curries.

Masala crab cake was another tasty dish. The usual mutton smell from the Mutton pepper fry was only minimal, so may go well with those who aren't comfortable with mutton.

For dessert, I tried the Scottish Sensation, which was a dollop of ice cream with a almost equally large share of wiskey on it. Its almost like drinking wiskey with ice cream. For those who can't take the liquor smell, you better avoid it. Otherwise, its another unique dessert.

Finally, for those who find even the mild curries here too spicy, then feel free to order the lassie drink. The fats in the drink help to dissolve and wash down the chemicals on the tongue which causes the spicy sensation.

This is a restaurant I will return for special occasions, with friends who are game to try Indian cuisine. Otherwise, being a fine restaurant, the prices are equally fine and definitely not for anything more frequent than the occasional treat.

However, it has a buffet lunch which costs only $25 pax. It promises to serve an assortment of the dishes from its ala carte menu. I've yet to try it, but it does sound promising, judging from the ala carte dishes I've tried in this trip.

I went there just yesterday for a birthday dinner treat by my fiancee.

Every table was served with a loaf of bread with herbs, served with butter before the dishes arrived. We like the bread and asked for a 2nd helping. It was warm, cripsy on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside. Yummy!

For appetizers, we shared the mushroom soup with truffle and crispy toufu with mushrooms. Its our 1st taste of truffle oil and it gave the mushroom soup an fresh perspective, while the mushroom soup itself tasted fresh. Fiancee however preferred it without the truffle. Both of us like the cripsy toufu which was fragrant and it whetted our appetites for the main course.

I had the grilled beef tenderloin, prepared medium. Its a tad too chewy on the inside of the steak, but otherwise the rest of it retained its juice and tender to the bite. It isn't the best steak I've had, but I'll call it above average.

Fiancee had the seabass laid on top of mushrooms. She absolutely loved it and I agree that it ranks above the steak. The thick slab of fish was soft, retained its shape when cut and melted in your mouth. Mixed with the gravy and the mushroom, the dish was a delight with each bite. Fiancee was remarking that she didn't expect to have such a mushroomy dinner, although mushrooms are her favourites anyway.

For desserts, we shared the Varlhona chocolate cake & vanilla ice cream and the banana crepe & vanilla ice cream. We absolutely loved the chocolate cake. On cutting it, the warm, rich chocolate within the cake oozed out. Savouring the cake mixed with the liquid chocolate was testimony to why chocolates are such timeless desserts. The banana crepe was alright. Not outstanding though.

Presentation of the dishes were good, as expected in a more expensive restaurant. Portions are small, as also expected in such restaurants.

The restaurant is cosy without being noisy despite its small floor area. However, the tables are placed close to each other. Its not difficult to pick up the conversations of neighbouring diners, so you will do well to be aware of that if you don't mind others overhearing your conversation.

Service is prompt although we could see only 3 waitresses on a Friday night. As the restaurant got filled up as the night went late, the staff is obviously overstretched. We saw a lady coming out to help later, who wasn't in uniform. We were guessing she's probably the owner/chef or somebody from the management.

In summary, the steep price for ala carte dinner is to compensate for the quality and presentation of the food and atmosphere. A place to bring somebody special for occasions.

A hi tea buffet boasting of its 101 tea selection. Although I'm not a tea connoiseur or fan, but I do appreciate a nice glass of Chinese/Japanese tea when I come across 1, let alone this buffet's wonderful variety of tea. From fruit infusion, Chinese fermented tea, Darjeeling tea and Japanese green tea, I love them all. Ice tea, ice coffee, hot coffee are included too. They are served in glasses (for the cold beverages), tea cups (for hot tea) or by the pot if you want to share it with your friends or just indulge in your favourite pot of tea. I would strongly recommend that you attend with a group of friends who also enjoy tea, so that the few of you can share a pot of tea and yet can afford enough stomach space to try a few variety of them. Alternatively, just go for the individual cups of tea, which I did for 3 types of tea I tried.

The buffet also has a good selection of buffet. I love the bread pudding with custard. Yummy! The cakes, scones were good too. Too bad I did't have enough space for fruits.

The buffet also includes a nice variety of food to fill your tummy. If you like cheese, there is about 6-8 types of cheese to choose from. Its fried chicken is really popular and each plate disappears in minutes. There's also caesar salad, pasta, mee siam, thal and naan, sashimi/sushi, dim sum, thai curry/bryani rice to choose from.

The buffet has 2 seatings. I took the 3.30-6pm seating. Last beverage order at 5pm. Besides indulging in the food, the venue also provides a good opportunity to chit chat with your friends without being drowned in noise from other diners due to its high ceiling.

The waitresses are also friendly and patient. Mind you. They keep coming to various tables to take orders for beverages and clear your plate not long after you finish the food on it, on a weekend when its full house. This brings me to the final point. Better reserve in advance, otherwise you may be disappointed to find there's no tables available for your own tea party.

I think its a buffet worth its weight in money, in terms of beverages, service and food they provide. But don't compare with dinner or lunch buffets else where. After all, this is a hi tea buffet which serves a mish mash of food to fill your tummy as you savour the fragrance of tea.

I went there recently for the 1st time to any Peach Garden restaurant for a company hosted dinner. The food and service did live up to their name.

The dishes I tried were well done, but just want to highlight those which I enjoyed the most: the steamed catfish (which was fresh and tasted delicious) and wasabi prawns. The latter dish is unique and I've not tried anything like it. The wasabi is mixed with gelatin, so although it looked liked you are swallowing lots of wasabi, but its just enough to taste without the sensation of it shooting up your sinuses. The prawns were also fat, juicy and tasty.

The service was prompt and attentive. The staff would regularly top up the tea and wine. Plates were changed regularly. When serving the dishes on the table, you are offered self service style vs having the dish evenly distributed via seperate plates to individual diners on the table.

This is certainly a restaurant you would consider to host a Chinese dinner for important clients and maybe the occasional special family celebrations. Its pricey, but with its price comes the quality food, ambience and service.

I went for Checkers' buffet on Sat night, which was a Japanese buffet which came with free flow sake. There was both hot and cold sake to choose from, other than green tea for non alcohol drinkers.

The spread of Japanese food was good, including cooked food, tapanyaki, tempura, sushi, sashimi, Japanese noodles with 3 soup bases and 4-5 noodles and several condiments to choose from. This was complemented with a variety of dessert, including cheesecake, green tea ice cream, fruits, pudding.

What made the meal outstanding was the seafood. The sashimi included the usual tuna, salmon, octopus and they were fresh. The steamed cod, Tapanyaki which included scallop, salmon, cod, prawn were cooked just right, retaining much of the juice and sweetness of fresh seafood without being overcooked. My girlfriend and myself helped ourselves to a few helpings of those.

The venue is not packed with diners even on a Sat night, so it offers a comfortable setting to have dinner with your friends. The seats are also not too packed, make it a more comfortable dining experience. The waiters and waitresses also take the effort to top up our drinks regularly, remove our plates prompty and inquire if we enjoyed our food, making the experience befitting of a restaurant rather than just a buffet.

$53 pax is a reasonable price to pay for a good Japanese meal, including sake. I'm not a fan of Japanese cuisine, so I won't go for the high end restaurants which can easily cost more than $100 pax. So when I'm paying $53 pax for a buffet for good Japanese food with free flow sake, I would consider it a value for money buffet. I don't have a big capacity stomach, nor do I drink myself silly to make up for the cost of the buffet. Rather, in this instance, it will do justice for the buffet for the diner to simply enjoy the variety of food and savour the food which are well prepared by the chef.

I decided not to compare this buffet with Hanabi, because they are quite different. Suffice to say both are buffet which are value for money for Japanese food. The difference in price is justified by the quality, variety of food and the ambience.

For starters, we shared soup of the day ($7.50) (pumpkin soup) and portabello mushroom ($15). The soup came with a slice of french loaf which was freshly toasted, so was crispy. The soup was only slightly warm, but compensated with its thick, creamy flavour. The portabello mushrooms were smaller than those I've eaten before, but topped with lightly flavoured tomatoes and fresh salad, it allowed me to appreciate the flavour of the mushroom, which tasted fresh and soft.

For main, I had the linguine scampi ($25)and my girlfriend had the seafood risotto ($25). Linguine came with fat, juicy prawns which I enjoyed very much. It was covered with olive oil rich with garlic and linguine was done al dente, which I enjoyed the dish very much.

Seafood risotto was only average in taste and came with servings of squid, prawns and mussels. Its saving grace was the soft and chewy squid and same juicy and tasty fresh prawns. From the prawns from the linguine and risotto, I figure that I'll have to try their starter, the seafood platter, the next time. :P

We rounded the dinner off with tiramisu ($9.50) and creme brulee ($8.50). Tiramisu was not too sweet and had a fine chocolate taste, but was otherwise not outstanding. Creme brulee was also not too sweet. Personally, I prefer the creme brulee I had at Angel's Share (see my other review on the restaurant), but my girlfriend proclaimed it a wonderful dessert (although she hadn't tried the dessert at Angel's Share).

The strength of this restaurant is its ambience. The night was cool even without the fans. We purposely moved to a corner which had minimal draft from the fan so that the food wouldn't cool so fast. Although its a Friday night, the restaurant was only half full from 7.30-8.30pm. The alfreso concept means even if it was full house, I wouldn't need to raise my voice from fellow diners' conversations. Of course, you could also enjoy a long, quiet walk along the park.

Dinner was served by a large group of attentive waitresses. The large group obviously was meant to cater to a full house crowd, which never materialised during my dinner then.

The downside to the eatery of course is the location, which requires a private vehicle to get you up to Labrador Park. If you don't mind paying for the ambience, its certainly a good place to bring your date to. However, do watch the bottomline. It isn't a place you like to have dinner at frequently.

I tried the New Zealand Sirloin steak medium well which came with baked potato and generous serving of carrots and salad, served with forestier sauce. This sauce wasn't too strong to mask the taste of the steak. The steak is good for the price ($14) and comes as a set meal by adding $3.50. It wasn't tough and still retained its flavour with a good chew.

My girlfriend ordered the BBQ Pork Spare Ribs and this was recommended recently in the Sunday Times by Wong Ah Yoke as 1 of the 100 best food in Singapore. It was tasty and the cooking retained the meat's flavour. But we aren't great fans of pork ribs, so not sure how it compares with the other more well known ribs elsewhere. It costs $12.50 and for its price, its serving is definitely generous and well worth its price.

The set meal gave us soup of the day (cream of chicken and mushroom), cheesecake for dessert and a beverage. I would say this is definitely worth it. The soup tasted like Campbell soup, but still had bits of meat and mushroom in them. I will be hardpressed to find anywhere else which offers such a value for set meal and its main course for these kind of prices in Singapore.

The service staff was prompt in service and helpful. The music was mainly Simone and Garfunkel. It wasn't too loud, but the noise level definitely started to build up as the crowd filled the place on a Tuesday evening because the restaurant has a short ceiling, thus trapping the conversation noise. However, proper conversation could still be made without resorting to raising my voice.

I would recommend that you should try to come outside the main dining hours to enjoy the cosy atmosphere, reasonably priced food and have a pleasant conversation with your partner.

I went there with 6 other colleagues for a after work dinner, mainly to enjoy the wine and also some dinner. Both didn't disappoint.

The wine list was extensive, although unfortunately more than half of them were unavailable. According to the staff, they were out of stock. We started the dinner with a Chardonnay from Australia and some entrees, including drunk mussels, chicken, scallop and squid. They were pretty good to go with the white.

I had tenderloin beef medium well ($35), while my friends had veal and chicken cordon bleu. I like the steak, which was juicy, tasty on the outside and juicy on the inside. Its covered with a light sauce which doesn't overwhelm the natural juice and taste of the steak, making eating the beef a delight. The beef came with serving of carrot and mashed potato. We had the main with a Shiraz. It was then followed by the Rockford red wine (can't remember which type of red it was) as recommended by 1 of my wine loving colleagues, while we enjoyed a chat.

Dessert was however limited to creme brulet and cheese platter because the other few desserts were out of stock. Nevertheless, the cheese platter, which can comfortably share between 2-4 persons was quite impressive, although I didn't get to taste it. The creme brulet was quite good too, although I've limited exposure to this very challenging to make dessert and can't make much comparisons with others. It has a firm, thin crust of sugar and soft, smooth taste of creme below.

Dessert was rounded off with a dessert wine from south of Bordeaux, vintage 1980s (which I can't recall the exact name). Chosen by my colleagues who really know their wines. It was a great experience of wine, although I've to warn against it if you don't have friends who can help finish off those wines, otherwise it will leave you too drunk to truly enjoy the wines.

The staff was polite in topping up our drinks and smiling, entertaining our requests and questions. The outdoor ambience is great especially since the weather was cooling and it was off from the main roads. Truly a great place to unwind, people watch and enjoy great food and wine.

Its a good place to come, but definitely it creates immense damage to the wallet.