21 on Rajah

Hello everyone!

I love May. Firstly, because it's the school holidays for me and it's the month of my best friend's birthday! Since it was her 21st birthday, we wanted to have a lunch buffet and after researching we decided on 21 on Rajah. The place received really good reviews and for the price of $32++ for lunch buffet on a Saturday seemed reasonable considering all the positive reviews.

Living in the NorthEast side, I must say it was a little inconvenient for me to travel all the way to Jalan Rajah. Nevertheless we were all excited to try the much talked about restaurant. When we first arrived, it wasn't so hard to locate the place as it was rather prominent from the bus stop near Moulmein CC. 

When we arrived I cannot deny how much I loved the interior, it was decorated in white tiles and bird cages were hanging from the top (how cute!). I wish I had taken a picture of the interior to show you guys. The place was big and it was able to accommodate really large groups. I was hoping that a large space will also be catered to display their food and I have to say I was really disappointed with the variety of food they had. Let me take you guys through what they really had on that day.

Cold Seafood Section - Prawns and Mussels

You can accompany the seafood with any of the 3 sauces available. They had garlic Garlic Salsa, Wasabi Mayo and Tomato Coriander Chilli Salsa. I went with the Garlic Salsa and some lemon as I am not a big fan of wasabi and I wanted something light.

I must say the seafood was really fresh and juicy. I was going back for multiple helpings because this was the best thing they had for that day.

4 types of Sushi

My hopes of eating some salmon that day was dashed. I love sushi and this was definitely not the best I've eaten but it was decent. The inari sushi and California sushi was not too bad. 

Salad Section

The ham used in the salad was very fresh and the cherry tomatoes were a delight to my taste buds. 

"Did you come here to eat tomatoes?" (Roslina, 2014)

But the cherry tomatoes were really yummy. They also had a DIY salad station where you could mix rocket leaves, romaine leaves and a few stuff with any sauce of your choice. 

Roasted Carrot and Baby Potato

I liked this dish but then again, how can anyone dislike potatoes. PLUS IT'S ROASTED MINI POTATOES.

Oven Baked Boneless Chicken with Mushroom Sauce

They also had Lamb Stew, Garlic Sautéed Asparagus and Baby Carrots, (Bland) Mac and Cheese, Sweet and Sour Fish, White Rice, (Unseasoned) Fish and Malay Style Mee Goreng which I did not get a picture of. 

Dessert Section

We decided to take the desserts last but this was what was left. I really wanted to try the Tiramisu but sadly it was all gone within an hour. I have high expectations for desserts (I secretly blame my family members for spoiling my taste buds with fantastic desserts). But this was nowhere near meeting my expectations. The Ondeh-Ondeh was really thick which did not give enough room for the gula melaka syrup. The Carrot Cake was so dry. The Panna Cotta lacked flavour and the chocolate syrup overpowered the taste. The jelly (Agar-Agar) was too sweet. 

"Even my worse attempt on agar-agar would taste better than this" (Roslina, 2014) 

The cheesecake and black forest cake was pleasant but not enough to salvage my opinion on the desserts. They also had a fruit section where you can select from 3 different fruits.

Nazreen baked a cake for Roslina and it tasted better than the desserts that they had on that day. 

Side note: Nazreen has her own business so do check her out. She has cakes, cupcakes and brownies (TRY HER BROWNIE)

Instagram: @nazspasteleria

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nazspasteleria

The total bill came up to $112 for 3 people and DBS/POSB card holders were entitled to 15% discount. Overall, I was greatly disappointed with my experience with 21 on Rajah. They did have really fresh seafood and salad but the other food were of average standard. One would expect to have a wider range especially during a weekend but I guess I should not have dined in with such high expectations. 

"I am not full, but I do not know what to eat anymore." (Roslina, 2014) 

Roslina does not have a very big appetite and for her to say this just shows the lack of variety they offered.

The menu does rotate and perhaps some other day you may get better dishes but judging from my experience I am not very sure. 

For $32 it was definitely not value for money and it will probably be my last time here. This is just my opinion and preferences vary. If you would like to patronise them someday, the venue is below. If you are going in big groups or going on a weekend it is safer to make a reservation. You might want to consider going for dinner instead of lunch since most of the positive reviews came from Dinner experience.

Venue

Days Hotel At Zhongshan Park

1 Jalan Rajah

Tel: 68086868

www.dayshotelsingapore.com

Operating Hours: Weekdays

Breakfast - 6.00am til 10.30am

Lunch - 12.00pm til 2.30pm

Dinner - 6.00pm til 10.30pm

Operating Hours: Weekends

Breakfast - 6.00am til 11.00am

Lunch - 12.00pm til 3.00pm

Dinner - 6.00pm til 11.00pm

https://www.facebook.com/21onRajah

Comment down below if you have visited 21 on Rajah and had a different experience from me!

Till then, have a nice day!

∞

Riverwalk Tandoor, Landmark Village Hotel

Hello everyone! I feel so guilty for not updating this blog as regularly as I wanted to. To be honest, there are lots of things I want to share but due to the lack of good quality photographs I had to delay my posts (yes, I know it's not a very good reason)

Back to topic, it was my bestfriend Roslina's 20th birthday and we wanted to celebrate somewhere nice. Without fail, I usually go for buffet whenever there's a celebration. That being said, we did go for a lunch buffet at Riverwalk Tandoor. If you have not heard of this restaurant, just a quick background information. From the name "Tandoor" you would be able to tell it's a North Indian Buffet. They have a total of 4 outlets (click on the link for more information). We decided to go to Landmark Village Hotel which is located opposite Raffles Hospital at Victoria Street, mainly because Nazreen had been there before. The restaurant is not halal-certified because they serve alcoholic drinks upon request but their ingredients used are halal so not to worry!

Just a few irrelevant snapshots of us.

It is located on the 5th level of the building and it has both an outdoor and indoor setting. I love how it looks classy and posh inside.

They did not have a wide selection of items, but they had the common North Indian Dishes. 

Our spread for round 1. We wanted to taste in small amounts before selecting our favourite dishes to have with the naan. (yummy!)

I was pleasantly surprised that they had mushroom soup in the appetizer and salad corner. I was definitely excited because I absolutely love mushrooms and it is always nice to start with soup. But I was rather disappointed with this dish because the garlic in the soup was overpowering and the soup watery for my liking. Always stick to Indian dishes in an Indian Buffet. 

When you go to a North Indian restaurant, you cannot leave without eating the naan. Garlic and Butter naan are my favourite type of naans but this one was not great but it was nice and went really well with the dishes. From the visible oil you can tell it is hot from the kitchen.

Everything on this plate was an absolute delight. Eat it either with the rice or naan because it can get a tiny bit salty as you slowly fill your tummy. As an Indian myself I should be accustomed to the amount of salt they use in dishes, but too much is never good.

I expected the garlic fish to have an overpowering garlic taste but to my surprise, it tasted really nice with the naan and the saffron rice. They had used a boneless fish fillet and the sauce was neither too thick nor too watery. The mutton has got to be one of my favourites. I love mutton and it had the right amount of spices and the meat was really tender. As much as I love this version, I still think my mum's mutton dishes are the best. hahaha

The tandoori chicken was a slight disappointment. It was dry and not fresh because I could taste the meaty taste (blame it on my sensitive taste buds) but it was not too bad if you dip it in the mint sauce.

Credits to Roslina for this pretty picture. Photoception? *winks*

Finally, the dessert section. These were the 3 items that they had. It was so refreshing to have really sweet watermelon especially on a hot day. The Gulab Jamun was really sweet and I would prefer it to be softer.  I don't enjoy rice puddings, always thought it was weird and this version didn't change my mind. But Roslina and Nazreen liked it. 

That's an irrelevant picture of me trying pose. hahaha, ...

This is the outdoor setting which and I am sure it will look amazing if you were to come for dinner.

It even has a pool! Awwww, can you imagine how romantic it will be at night? 

The total bill came up to about $52.60 for 3 people. Overall, it was a good experience in Riverwalk Tandoor and the service was excellent, something that I am particular about. The food quality and taste was reasonable for the price we paid. Plus, the ambiance looked posh for the amount that we had paid. One downside was that the food was not warm enough. Nonetheless, If you're looking for a cheap North Indian Buffet, Riverwalk Tandoor is the place for you. 

*They do offer catering services. I first heard about them from my aunt because her workplace had ordered from them for Deepavali Celebrations.

Website: http://www.riverwalktandoor.com.sg

It's always great to hang out with these girls. I tried out something new for Roslina's birthday. She said "NO GIFTS" so I made a little something which I am so excited to show you guys. I hope you will check this page regularly even though I take ages to update. Have great day guys!

PS: Most of the photos were taken using Roslina's Canon DSLR, can't remember the model. It made me want to use mine. I've been neglecting my Nikon D3100 for a while now. booo me.

∞

Buffet at Straits Kitchen

I love buffets. I love the part where there's variety of flavours and options to choose from, not the guilty feeling that you get after stuffing your face and seeing your tummy bulge out until you can't walk. As it was the last weekend of the year 2012, my friends and I decided to indulge ourselves with good food in a posh restaurant.

As a kiasu Singaporean, we decided to make reservations for 8 a week ahead at Straits Kitchen and we were given the biggest table in the restaurant. 

Having an open kitchen format, you could see chefs working as you enter the restaurant. No matter how many times I dine in at a restaurant with an open kitchen format, it never fails to excite me. Once we got to our seats, all of us dispersed and started taking food from the different stations and started filling up our long table.

This rojak, gado-gado and popiah station. 

The popiah as a whole was normal but the rojak was really nice especially with the youtiao.

Yes, our table was huge and I couldn't stop smiling looking at the food. (It was crazy)

In excitement and hunger we spared no time for taking individual pictures (which I regret now) and started eating once the table was filled up. 

We had naan, curries, masala prawns, aloo chat, tandoori chicken, satays, rojak, popiah, gado-gado, rendang, mutton, roasted duck, roasted chicken, steamed chicken, fried rice, stir-fried vegetables, char kuay teow and a few others which I may have forgotten to mention.

We loved the masala prawns from the Indian section that complimented the naan and prata very well.

I must definitely mention the roasted duck. I had been craving for duck for a really long time and my eyes was probably twinkling when I ate it. Not a biased opinion, but it was the best dish there.

Laksa and Prawn Noodle

You should not waste your stomach for these. The laksa tasted too milky even with the addition of chilli and the prawn noodle was bland. If you notice at the back, the duck was my favourite. 

We were seated in a position where we were directly facing the duck. Vanessa and I were going crazy with the roasted duck. After this I won't have to think about duck meat for another 3 months.

Fruits

We finally decided to start on desserts and fruits. Sadly there was not much variety with the fruit selection but I got eat the passionfruit after a really long time.

Pandan Cake and Onde Onde

The pandan cake was really nice and moist. It wasn't too sweet nor was it too bland and it was up to my liking. But I love cakes. I did not try the onde-onde because Sam told us it wasn't good and the flour seemed thick as well.

Sago with Gula Melaka

The kuihs generally were not bad. I am ashamed that I am unfamiliar with some of the names here. But the rainbow coloured kuih and the brown kuih with coconut was good.

Goreng Pisang

Who doesn't love goreng pisang?

Durian Ice Cream 

and this was AWESOME. 

If you love durians, you should definitely have a lot of these.

I did not take a picture of the muah chee, but that was really good as well. But sadly I was too full for all the desserts and but still managed to try a bit of everything. Normally, I have enough room for desserts but yesterday was a different case. 

Overall, my friends enjoyed the food and we enjoyed the company. My friends are big eaters, maybe that was one of the reasons that we were able to stuff so much food inside our tummy without bursting. For the price that we paid, it was a good experience overall including ambiance, food and service. Although all these local delicacies can be found in most hawker centres, the experience, service and quality of food received is definitely different. Best of all it is Halal! I would rate it 4/5.

The Address:

Straits Kitchen

Grand Hyatt Singapore

10 Scotts Road

Singapore 228211

Tel: 6732 1234

Nearest MRT: Orchard

Price: $44++ for lunch on weekends for adults

On a side note, Happy New Years Eve!