Tim Ho Wan 添好運 (Westgate)

We never tried the one at Plaza Singapura because both Paul and I refuse to physically queue for more than 30mins for our food, no matter how awesome it is. 

Tim Ho Wan opened another outlet at Westgate and we decided to try it for dinner after our movie. We went at about 9pm and a table was waiting for us.

Tim Ho Wan's menu for those who are curious but yet to try it.

Paul over-ordered as usual (initially we had 9 dishes in total for just the 2 of us). Good thing we cancelled the rice otherwise it would have been wasted. Here are some of the items we had...

The famous "bo luo char siew bao". This was yummy. For me it tasted quite authentic compared to the one in HK from what I recall.  

Think this was a laksa based soup. Not bad. Spicy though (my threshold for spicy food is quite low).

I've heard such bad comments about THW and how it doesn't compare to the one in HK. Honestly, though we've both tried the one in HK, we feel that the one in Singapore is pretty decent and we don't mind going back again, on the condition that we don't have to queue up. 

Tim Ho Wan

Westgate

3 Gateway Drive

#01-13/14

(S) 608532

Open daily from 11am to 10pm. 

Baker & Cook

We were both on leave on Monday and Paul suggested to try the brunch place at Greenwood. Most brunch/ coffee places close on Mondays so we were quite happy to see Baker & Cook open when we arrived. 

You'll see rows of pastries and bread when you first peer through the glass. I ordered eggs benny from the brunch menu and Paul got the quiche that was displayed at the counter. 

 

The eggs benny was pretty good. Eggs were poached well, bacon was very tasty. Felt that the bread they used was quite tough though. 

Quiche was good. 

Brownie was ok. A bit hard though and we can't heat it up. 

Please do not order the hot chocolate unless you wanna get diabetes. Too sweet!!

Coffee was good. I really liked the seating in the cafe. Very chill and it's a nice place to relax with a good book, or you can just pick a food book from the table to flip through. 

Nice place for afternoon tea or light brunch. Don't expect to have a hearty meal there unless you are ok stuffing yourself with pastries and bread. 

Baker & Cook

77 Hillcrest Road

(S)288951

6469 8834

Table @ Pip's

Because we always frequent Carpenter & Cook at Lorong Kilat, we realised that the stretch seems to have quite a lot of restaurants that are worth a try. 

Ended work late yesterday, at 9pm, and Paul suggested we check out the french/european restaurant at Lorong Kilat - Table @ Pip's. 

The restaurant has a very quaint, homely feel to it and the chef was very attentive and friendly from the beginning, always checking that our dinner was ok. The menu was surprisingly reasonably priced. 

Here's what we had for dinner...

Appetiser: escargots

(we were considering foie gras but decided to save the geese and chose something that would not spike our currently high cholesterol level)

The escargots were good and tasty. Creatively served stuffed in mushrooms. We polished them off quite quickly. 

My main: seabass topped with fried garlic and mash

Seabass was fresh and soft - just the way I like it. Goes very well with the fried garlic and sauce. Yummy. Would have been better if the sauce was less oily though. 

Paul's main: chicken roland with mash

Paul said it was tasty but would have preferred that the portions were bigger.

Dessert: chocolate durian (chef's specialty) and bread & butter pudding

  

I preferred the chocolate durian cake but Paul had more of the pudding (though he didn't like raisins). The chocolate durian somehow went well together and the texture was great. 

Had a great dinner overall and the bill came up to $47. Worth the visit and would definitely go back again.

*** Update on 2nd visit ***

We visited this restaurant and realised that their menu is the same throughout the day. This time we headed there for lunch and ordered the foie gras as appetiser. It was not very good. Rather overcooked (not as soft as expected) and a bit too much sauce. 

I had the Fish & Chips this time. I was very disappointed because I thought it was hard to go wrong with Fish & Chips but they proved me wrong. The fish was not crispy at all and the crust/ batter fell apart while I was slicing through the fish. What I had was a slice of fish that was surrounded by soggy batter :( But the fries were good at least. 

Paul's duck was good and he swapped his dish with me as he wanted the fries. 

The duck was good but the skin could have been more crispy. 

Oh well. Perhaps we ordered the wrong dishes this time. 

Table @ Pip's

17 Lorong Kilat

6884 6884

Miharu Sapporo Ramen (near Gallery Hotel)

Had a ramen craving that day and searched online for some ideas on where to get good ramen. The top of the list seems to be Miharu Sapporo Ramen where the Japanese are seen to frequent. In fact when we were there, 2 Japanese families stepped in to have their lunch. 

The interior of the place is simple with limited seats. There are more seats outside if one prefers to lunch alfresco. 

I ordered the no.2:

Paul ordered the no.11:

The soup base is not the thick kind (which I prefer) that you find at, say, Ippudo or Musashi. Plus, the soup was a bit too oily for my liking.  

Paul says,

The ramen was ok but a tad salty. Not the best I've had but not the worst. I prefer the ramen at Musashi more.

The noodles were good. Springy and makes for a good slurp. Eggs (which I find very important in ramen) were cooked to perfection where the yolk is soft and gooey. 

Overall good comfort food if you like a simple quiet lunch that is near town but where you can avoid the traffic on the weekends. 

Miharu Sapporo Ramen

1 Nanson Road

near Gallery Hotel 

Tel: 6733 8464