Dining With Jewelle

Because we made it a point to return to our hotel in the late afternoon to let the kids rest, we usually have our dinners around the surrounding Bugis area.

One of the evening, we walked along Queen Street towards Bugis Village and saw a few open air food courts. But the one we chose to dine at was at the side of the largest street shopping in Singapore, Bugis Street.

Outside this building was another Four Faced Buddha Altar (which interest me) and a Mitsubishi Evo IX (which interest my husband).

As for the foodcourt, I was surprised that it was pleasant and cool inside despite it being open air. It was also good as it was not too busy and if there is one thing that I dislike about Singaporean food court is that, you have to wait in front of the stall for your food to be cooked.

And only once was I told to take-a-seat-first-and-I’ll-send-the-food by the hawker.

I had my only Singaporean chicken rice here and also something which I am very fond of lately - chinese dumpling! The stall where I got mine sell theirs at $4 for 10 pcs. I didn’t really fancy the sourish mango sauce but the dumplings were delicious enough and panfried just the way I like it.

Because we knew that we’d have a problem getting food for Qi in a Japanese eatery, we ended up with only ONE Japanese treat throughout our whole trip.

And it was not even one of those proper Japanese restaurant with sushi train but rather a fast food corner at Plaza Singapura called Yoshinoya. I read that this is a big chain which originated from Japan and has 13 outlets in Singapore alone!

Their recommended dish is their beef bowl selection but my husband ordered their Chicken Teriyaki and Salmon and I (having discovered the one Japanese food I do enjoy) had their plate of Gyoza.

The teriyaki looked good enough and the kids sure enjoyed it.

I was happy with my Gyoza too although I would prefer them to be fried a little longer. The ginger sauce was a bit too exotic for me though.

However, they are good for snacks and at the time when we were there, past 9pm, it was still busy with patrons.

I guess we are not a family of adventurous diners because after 6 days of Singapore food courts and restaurants, Eu’s remark when she saw our simple home-cooked dinner the first night after we came home summed up our feelings.

“What lovely food!”

It’s not that we didn’t enjoy eating out.

In fact, I had looked forward to checking out our hotel’s in-house dining and on one rainy evening, I very gladly rang Room Service for their “Lamb Chop” and “Fish Congee”.

The porridge was nothing much to look at and the lamb chop was not that much better. As you can probably tell from the picture, it was dry.

I guess with many nearby eateries (2 food courts less than 200m away), room service is not one of their strong point.

But Royal @ Queens was good in all other ways though.

The thing about attending a dinner function where you are served is that you are limited to the amount that the waiter puts on your plate.

It’s much easier for men to demand second or third helpings but for us female, unless you want to appear uncouth or greedy, you have to expect to be left hungry as if there is one thing I noticed about fine dining is that the quantity is pathetic.

So, come prepared.

And that what was we, the fans of NON-fine dining, did before we went for our Saturday night function.

From the privacy of our room, we ordered the Empire Hotel’s beef burger and we were thoroughly satisfied with it.

We were impressed that although our room was on the other side of the hotel, our order arrived reasonably fast and come to think of it, we should have ordered the steaks!

At $22 (inc charges), it is recommended.

Because we are more familiar with the Chinese restaurant next door, we never thought of visiting the RMS Diner until a few weekends ago.

And the only reason was because they were having an irresistible offer of 50% their steaks and burgers.

Because the inner restaurant was relatively very small, it was full and so we had to sit outside - which was fine as fortunately there were no smokers around.

The menu selections were standard.

Our dish looked very presentable and I enjoyed the garlic bread from my husband’s Caesar Salad. My lamb was good but Eu enjoyed it more and she probably ate it more than me as she kept asking for bites.

Her spaghetti was yummy too but she did not quite fancy it and she did not touch the fried chicken nuggets at all.

Qi, as you may have guessed only consented to the fries and even those were only for her to chew NOT swallow (I fed her packed lunch from home).

Because of the 50% off for both my lamb and the burger, our lunch was reasonable at $30+.

Not a bad place for a change.

Because I was quite taken with the Kaizen’s fried dumpling a.k.a. Gyoza during our last visit to the Seria branch, and I remembered that I didn’t quite fancy the Excapade’s Gyoza.

So I decided to compare them again and a few days ago, I got my husband to take away one serving of the Excapade’s Gyoza.

Even from the looks of it, you could tell that they were prepared and cooked differently. The Excapade’s gyoza were quite soggy but that could be from the fact that they had to spend 30 mins on the road (!). But again, even the sauce was different.

I thought the Kaizen’s Gyoza was very much like the Chinese dumpling that I am used to - so perhaps the Excapade’s version is more authentic?

For that, I need to go to Japan to find out.

But at this point, I can safely conclude that I prefer the Kaizen’s.

*Read more on Gyoza if you wish*