Was in Kuala Lumpur two weeks ago for a business meeting and had lunch with BL, EG, TK, and A at Melting Pot Cafe (Concorde Hotel Kuala Lumpur, 2 Jalan Sultan Ismail, 50250 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia). I had a satay chicken pizza which turned out very good. The amount of spice and peanut sauce is just right. Reminds me of the taste of dipping bread in satay sauce, but with the added richness of mozarella cheese. Yummy!

Had lunch with my board members BZ, ML, and HG at Town Restaurant (The Fullerton Singapore, 1 Fullerton Square, Singapore 049178) mid October. We had a table by the window which offered a wonderful view of Singapore River. I had the lunch buffet which was high in quality. There's sashimi, a carving station, and a good dessert table. The most memorable was the made-to-order pan-seared scallops, which were juicy and succulent.

Had lunch with RK and WG at Edogin Japanese Restaurant (Basement, Hotel Mulia Senayan, Jl Asia Afrika Senayan, Jakarta 10270, Indonesia). We took the lunch buffet. The spread was average, and RK said the dinner spread is much better. After a couple of rounds, I didn't find anything interesting and so focused on the sashimi instead, which comprises the usual salmon, tuna, and snapper. The grilled cod here doesn't taste like cod at all, and I suspect it is catfish rather than cod.

Had dinner with HG and CH at Nam Sing Restaurant (39-47 Soi Texas, Th Phadung Dao, off Yaowarat Road, Bangkok, Thailand) Tuesday night. We had fresh oysters, sharksfin soup, braised abalone rice, BBQ pork neck, grilled fresh water prawns, and baked sea bass in salt crust. The food is good and fresh. I especially like the sea bass and the abalone rice. The pork nect is also fragrant, although too fatty. This is a restaurant that is popular with Singaporeans.

Was invited to a dinner reception last Monday evening by the OpenWay Group at Sirocco (1055/111 State Tower Bangkok, Silom Road, Bangkok 10500, Thailand). When I stepped out of the elevator, which opened on the 64th floor of the State Tower building, I was immediately taken aback by the opulence and magnificent scenary offered at this rooftop restaurant. We spent about 2 wonderful hours just sipping wine and chatting amidst a very light drizzle on the top of Bangkok. We had unobstructed views of the entire city from up there!

After our pre-dinner drinks, we proceeded to dinner in a private room on the 67th floor. The food is very good but I believe what many agreed to steal the show that night was the cream of corn soup with caviar. Actually it is salmon roe (rather than sturgeon caviar) in the soup, but nevertheless very nice. The texture of the salmon roe bursting in your mouth with each mouthful of soup is heavenly!

I had breakfast at Mistral while staying at the Sofitel Silom Bangkok Hotel. Mistral is a contemporary Mediterranean restaurant. I find the quality of food served at breakfast to be good. There's carved honey baked ham with roasted pineapples (my favourite), smoked salmon, eggs benedict, and a whole range of usual breakfast fare.

While in Sydney for AKKI's Annual Meeting, I had dinner with HG, WG, AT, and EG at Pyrmont's Restaurant (Level 1, Lyric Theatre, 80 Pyrmont Street, Pyrmont, Sydney, NSW 2009, Australia). We had oysters to share and I had a ribeye steak as main course. The oysters were so succulent and sweet that we ended up ordering another dozen. The ribeye steak was average. Service is friendly and attentive but not overbearing. We enjoyed our dinner here a lot.

Had dinner with BZ and TY at Summer Palace (The Regent Singapore, 1 Cuscaden Road, Singapore 249715) Saturday night. We weren't feeling very hungry, so we just took a very light meal. Ordered the winter melon soup, the spare ribs in coffee sauce, and Hong Kong kailan with oyster sauce. The soup was good with ample crab meat and dried scallops. The spare ribs turned out to be dissapointing. Though the coffee sauce is fragrant, there was almost no meat on the spare ribs. What I had could be described as two bones with coffee sauce. The kailan was average as well. The ambience of this restaurant is quite good and service is also courteous, although the kitchen is very slow.

My last meal in Saint Petersburg was at Aquarel (Near Birzhevoy Most, entrance from Petrograd Side, St. Petersburg, Russia). This is a three-storey restaurant boat docked on Neva River, and with a nice view of the waters. The cuisine is fusion. The service is friendly and prompt. I had a ginger glazed salmon belly with soba in miso soup. I was actually quite nice, except that the soup was luke warm and not hot when it came. Otherwise, it would have been nice.

The one thing I didn't like about this restaurant is that everytime a hydrofoil passes by, the restaurant would rock with the powerful waves, and it makes me sea-sick.

The other drawback is that this restaurant is expensive! But otherwise, this is one of my nicest meal in Saint Petersburg.

Was still craving for Oriental food, so I headed to Golden Dragon (61 Kronverksky Prospect, St. Petersburg, Russia) which was near the hotel I was staying in. I went in, looked through their menu for 10 minutes, and left the place without ordering anything. The menu is more Vietnamese than Chinese, and they don't look at all appetizing (there were pictures). Even simple items like sweet and sour pork looked horrible in the picture. I should have known better when I walked in and I was the only one in the whole restaurant. Give this place a miss!

After more than a week in Russia, I was craving for Oriental food. Came across Evrasia Japanese Restaurant while walking along Bolshoy Prospect and went in immediately for dinner. I had a sushi set and unagi (eel) and egg roll. The food is only average. But I was happy to get my Oriental meal!

EG and I weren't feeling hungry on Sunday night after our tour of Peterhof, so we headed down to Nevsky Prospect for some light fair. We came accross Coffee House, which seems a rather nice cafe, and decided to give it a try. I had a banana-split capuccino and a slice of berry cake, while EG had a beer and the same cake I took. I find the cake nice, but EG didn't like it. My coffee is not as good as I had hoped, and the price here is just sky-high. To give you an idea, my capuccino costs RUR125 (about USD4.50) for a regular!

Second day of our Saint Petersburg tour last Sunday took us to Peterhof. EG and I had lunch at Restaurant Great Orangery, which is one of our worst experience in Saint Petersburg. First, we had a reservation, but we were pushed around from one hall to another, without anyone willing to serve us. Second, our food took a long time to come, and we had to wait between dishes. Third, the food quality is bad. My beef was tough and tasteless. Service is almost non-existent here!

Had dinner with EG at Tinkoff Microbrewery and Restaurant (7 Kazanskaya ul., St. Petersburg, Russia) last Saturday night. This restaurant serves an interesting selection of house-brewed beers and pub fairs (American and Japanese). I tried their unfiltered beers (golden and white nights) which were both good. I prefer the golden unfiltered beer, although the white nights is more expensive, being a seasonal brew.

EG had a mixed platter which came with sausages, grilled pork, and sauerkraut, which he said is not nice. I had a katsu don (Japanese pork chip on rice) and a pizza magharita to share. The katsu don is very salty and the pizza ordinary. This is certainly not a place for good food. It is only a place where you want to hang around for some beer.

Had lunch with EG on Saturday at The Hermitage Restaurant (8 Palace Square, Saint Petersburg, Russia). This restaurant is located in the left wing of the General Staff Building, facing The Hermitage. We took the set lunch, which is part of our tour package. The set lunch came with garden salad, borsch soup, chicken cutlet, and tiramisu. I don't care much for borsch, but the rest of the items are quite good. Service here is good also.

AV took us to dinner with the families of some of OpenWay's staff at Cafe Stolle (50, 1 Syezdovskaya, Vasilyevsky Ostrov, Saint Petersburg, Russia). Cafe Stolle is supposedly famous for their pies, both savoury and sweet. They already ran out of savoury pies when we reached there at about 7:30pm, and were left with three sweet pies. We immediately made reservation for those sweet pies for our dessert.

As main course, I had chicken baked in cheese and pineapple, which is a little bland. However, we were there for the pies, and they did not disappoint. I tried all the three different pies - blackberry, cherry, and cheese, all of which were excellent, but I especially liked the blackberry one.

Price is also very reasonable here and it has a relaxing and laid-back ambience.

AV brought EG, KW, RG, W, and myself to Mountain Eagle (Gorniy Orel) situated by the Saint Petersburg Zoo because KW commented that the food there was very good. This restaurant serves Georgian cuisine, which is dominated by different sorts of bread and shish-kebab. We had fried cheese, two kinds of bread (one that looks and tastes like a cheese pizza, and one that looks and tastes like the Indian bread naan). We also had an assortment of lamb, pork, and chicken shish-kebab. The food were all quite nice and the price reasonable.

AV took EG, KW, RG, and myself to Na Zdorovie (Boshoy Prospekt, 13, Petropavlovskaya Storona, Saint Petersburg, Russia) for dinner on the first day of our arrival in Saint Petersburg. This is a restaurant serving traditional Russian cuisine in an authentic interior. We started with some appetizers comprising blinis (Russian pancakes) with carviar, jellied beef, smoked salmon, and marinated herring to go along with some vodka. I had chicken Kiev as main course after that. The food is rather well-prepared, but I do not fancy Russian food. What I enjoyed most is the blinis with carviar.

Had dinner last night with A, W, EG, KW, and RG at an interesting restaurant by the name of Restaurant! The restaurant is situated in the former administration building of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The place is rustic, spacious, and charming.

As is typical for a Russian meal, we first ordered some starters to go together with the vodka. This restaurant distills their own vodka and we had a taste of their horse raddish flavoured and craneberry flavoured vodka. The taste between the two are rather similar, with the craneberry flavoured one substantially sweeter. For starters, we had marinated herring, salted mushrooms, pickled mushrooms, jellied beef, cold pork fat, and blinis with carviar. I skipped the herring as I did not fancy it. I also did not try the salted and pickled mushrooms, but EG and KW tried them and found them so salty that they couldn't take a second serving. The jellied beef is rather nice. The cold pork fat is very interesting. It is actually frozen pork fat (and I do mean pure pork fat) that is sliced very thinly. You eat it by spreading it on bread. The pork fat is like butter and literally melts in your mouth. But what stole the show is the blinis (Russian pancake, but is actually more like a crepe) with carviar. We had both red carviar and black carviar. The red carviar is from salmon, while the more expensive black carviar is from sturgeon. I liked them both.

I also tried the famous Russian drink kvass for the first time here. Kvass is a drink made by fermenting bread, but does not have any alcohol content. It was quite sweet, and I found it to be a cross between root beer and ginger ale in taste.

After the starters, none of us had any room left for main course. So we had some coffee and left the restaurant closed to midnight.

As is usual in Russia, dinner came up to be very expensive. We spent 10,000 RUR, equivalent to USD360, for the six of us!

Had dessert with family at Changing Appetities (6 Raffles Boulevard, #01-204/205, Marina Square, Singapore) couple of weekends ago. Dad was tempted by the Japanese sweets which they claim is even better than what you find in Tokyo. So I ended up having a Japanese dessert, which comprised green tea ice cream, glutinous rice balls, and red bean paste. XQ had something similar, except with the glutinous rice balls replaced by fruits. The desserts turned out to be rather good, and the service friendly. The restaurant space is big, so it has a rather relaxing feel.

Met BZ for lunch at Dolce Vita (Level 5, Poolside, The Oriental, Singapore) yesterday. We sat ourselves outdoors, near the pool, but within a few minutes, there were strong gusts of wind and everything was flapping wildly beside us. Upon the waitress' advice, we decide to move indoors.

We weren't really hungry, so BZ ordered a cured salmon salad and we shared a langoustine pizza. The portion turned out to be very small. The salad was just a couple of slices of smoked salmon with less than a handful of greens. The pizza was nice but it wasn't langoustine on it but just ordinary prawns. In summary, I would say the food is above average in quality, and on the expensive side. Nice ambience though.

Joined SS, BZ, AR, HG, WG, together with Visa International staff and Indonesian card center managers for dinner at Surya Cafe (Jalan Segara, Lorong 21, Tanjung Benoa, Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia) last Friday evening. Ellyana Fuad, Country Manager of Indonesia Visa International, told me that this is the favourite restaurant of Indonesia's ex-President Megawati.

The restaurant setting is rustic, with a nice sea view. We had a sumptious meal, comprising grilled prawns, garlic prawns, grilled fish, deep fried squid, crabs, and vegetables. The price is rather reasonable too. We had an enjoyable time.

After our dinner at the New Melasti Cafe, I went to Jaan Restaurant (Jalan Raya Seminyak 10, Kuta, Bali, Indonesia) with BZ and his family for some drinks and to enjoy some jazz. It was rather empty when we reached there and we didn't stay long. I think we were late. JP told me that this is a rather expensive restaurant in Bali. This restaurant is owned by the influential Gede Wiratha.

BZ invited me for dinner with his family at the New Melasti Cafe on Jimbaran Bay in Bali, Indonesia sometime last week. We dined on the beach and had the table closest to the sea. The waves of Jimbaran Bay were quite powerful and the sound of the pounding waves adds to the majestic backdrop.

The food was excellent. The waiters brought us some welcome soup and we had grilled lobster, grilled prawns, calamari, and crabs, all of which were very fresh and delicious. We also had a bottle of white wine to accompany our food.

The seranading band played us many oldies which we enjoyed greatly. To top off, the company was wonderful!

Took a quick dinner at Fukutaro, Bali Airport yesterday while waiting for my flight back to Singapore. This is part of the Fukutaro chain of Japanese restaurants in Bali. I had a lobster miso soup, salmon maki, and thinly-sliced raw white fish. The quality is good, though quite expensive for most items on the menu.

BZ brought me to Ku de Ta (Jalan Laksmana no. 9, Seminyak, Kuta, Bali, Indonesia), together with his family, while I was visiting him in Bali last week. It was for an after-dinner drink. We reached there about 11:30pm, which is considered early by Bali standards (most night spots in Bali become happening only after midnight)! Ku de Ta is located along Kuta Beach beside the luxurious The Oberoi, Bali, and is owned by Kade Wiratha.

The attraction of this place is that you can lie in a comfortable longe sipping your drink, and looking at the waves pound under the moonlight! A wonderful way to pass an evening! Very nice and romantic! Beware of mosquitoes though ... but then where in Bali can you avoid them?

I'm trying to play catch-up on restaurant reviews, so I'm putting up some reviews which I've either forgotten, or hadn't got the time to write before. Here is one: Miao Yi Vegetarian Restaurant (Coronation Shopping Plaza #03-01, Bukit Timah Road, Singapore).

I consider this one of the better vegetarian restaurants in Singapore, with interesting glutten-based vegetarian food. I like their mock fish, mock char-siew, and two versions of their sandwiches, one with deep fried beancurd skin wrapped mushrooms between two slices of bread, and one with deep fried beancurd skin, cucumber and mock ham. Their ginger rice is also very nice, being a mock of chicken rice, although it is not available every day.

It can be crowded on weekends, so reservation is advised.

I had lunch at Trishaw Coffee House (Hotel Royal, 36 Newton Road, Singapore 307964) quite a long time ago, but had forgotten to put up a blog entry on it. Nothing on their menu looks appetizing, and I went for the pineapple rice, which is worse than even hawker center versions. I would recommend avoiding this place.

I usually would eat a quick meal at O'Briens Irish Sandwich Bar (UOB Plaza, Singapore) when I'm in that part of town and in a rush. I especially like their turkey cranberry sandwich, which many of my friends enjoy as well. Their satay wrap is dissapointing though. The sandwich comes with two choices of vegetable toppings, and I usually pick the grilled capsicums and corn. The UOB Plaza outlet offers a nice view of the Singapore river.

CC brought me to Sebastien's Gourmet (42 Watten Rise, Watten Estate, Singapore 287357) for coffee one afternoon last week. I immediately liked the place, as it was quiet and serene. Would be perfect as a place to unwind, for some talks, or just thinking about problems. Sebastien's Gourmet is a cafe cum gourmet grocer and you can get coffee, pastries, and some light meals here. The food quality is good, consistent with Les Amis' reputation.

Had lunch with family at My Secret Garden (161 Middle Road, Singapore 188978) two weeks ago. I like the laid-back and relaxing feeling of this place. You can sit in comfortable sofas in a library-like atmosphere, in a greenhouse if you like some sun, or outdoors in a nice little garden. I've tried the sandwiches, curry chicken and pizzas here. The food is nice, though nothing to scream about. Service is friendly. The one draw-back of this place is that its prices are on the high side.

It took a long time for me to decide if I should include reviews of mass market chains of restaurants such as Sakae Sushi, because the line between them and fast food chains such as McDonald's is not one that is easy to draw, and I don't want to end up writing about MacDonald's. I shall make a little discourse here since this reminds me of something that Michel Deza told me.

At the recent 2005 Shanghai Combinatorics Conference, Michel told Charlie Colbourn and myself that he hates McDonald's food but thinks McDonald's fill in a void in society. Well-to-do people have cafes such as Starbucks where they could hang out, have a coffee, and talk. But these places are not that accessible by poorer people, who would find spending US$3-5 on a cup of coffee to be too expensive. McDonald's allows these poorer people, including students and teenagers to have a coffee and talk. This is important because it enables communication and support in this strata of people. But here's MIchel's ending punchline: "But why do they have to be made to eat shit at the same time?"" Charlie Colbourn and I just rolled with laughter hearing that!

Now, back to Sakae Sushi. They have succeeded into bringing the expensive Japanese cuisine to mass market, but at some sacrifice, mainly that of personalization, variety, and some quality. I find the food not too bad and good value. It is certainly not top-notch Japanese food, and some may even say it is average, but I think the value makes up more than enough for the short comings.

Had dinner with family at Grand Asia Restaurant (Asia Hotel, 37 Scotts Road, Singapore) about one month ago. We had originally wanted to dine at the Sun Tsui Hang Restaurant (see my review here) but was surprised to see that in its place is this new Grand Asia Restaurant. We decided to give it a try. The restaurant was renovated, and the staff told us that management and chef have changed, although the menu looked rather similar to that of Sun Tsui Hang. I find the quality of food here not as good as before. But the good thing is that they still do not charge corkage for the wines you bring. Service can be forgetful, so be prepared to remind the waitresses and waiters often.

BZ and IP invited XQ and myself to dinner at Saint Julien some 10 days ago. I was there a previous time with BZ and he found it so nice that he wanted to bring IP here. I've tried the foie gras, lobster bisque, pan-seared scallops, and roasted lamb here. I would say the foie gras and scallops are quite well done, but the lobster bisque and roasted lamb turned out to be disappointments. The lobster bisque was without a single piece of lobster and had only one miserable piece of scallop. The roasted lamb I had that night was baked in a pastry dough, and the pastry dough was so thick that it was not cooked properly. On top of that, the food is expensive. For dessert, I had the crepe suzzette which costs S$32 for two pieces of crepe! The ambience is good, but the value and quality of food is questionable.

Had late dinner with XQ at Bai Hua Yuan (百花苑), Zhong Ya Hotel (330 Meiyuan Road, Shanghai, China). We were there just after 9pm and only the late-night menu was available. We had sauteed shrimps and a winter melon soup. Food is below average. Avoid.

Blogging from Singapore Changi Airport. Was supposed to be on SQ806 bound for Shanghai at 10:10 this morning. But an electrical fault in the aircraft caused a 3-hour delay and here I am, in the SATS Premium Lounge blogging away and waiting for a new aircraft scheduled to depart at 13:15.

The delay screwed up pretty much all of my plans for the evening in Shanghai. And worse, Singapore Airlines doesn't seem to be the least bit apologetic, as if it is a day-to-day affair that warrants no special care for the passengers involved.

I'm a Singaporean, and fly Singapore Airlines often. But I'm sad to say that the quality of service has dropped so much. For example, I wonder if those feedback forms were ever read. I had written in an earlier form that I expect a written answer from Singapore Airlines regarding an unhappy incident. To date, there were no written answers, no phone calls, no communications whatsoever. Makes me wonder ... "A Great Way to Fly"?

Had business lunch with BZ, EG, SW, and WL at Dragon Court (Sheraton Media, Jalan Gunung Sahari Raya No. 3, Jakarta 10720, Indonesia) last month. We ordered a peking duck, deep-fried garoupa, and stir-fried kailan. Nothing memorable and the service is slow.

On my trip to Jakarta last month, AR invited XQ and me for dinner at Shima (Hyatt Aryaduta Hotel, Jalan Prapatan 44-48, Jakarta 10110, Indonesia), which expanded into a big party comprising SS and wife, H, and HG. We had toro (tuna belly) and mixed sashimi, teppanyaki with Mastusaka beef (which many consider as superior to Kobe beef), king prawns, scallops, and mixed vegetables. All the items turned out to be heavenly! Even the dessert of fried banana with ice-cream is good. But stole the show is the wonderful company that night!

Had dinner with family at The Divine Cuisine (360 Orchard Road, #02-01/04 International Building, Singapore) sometime last month. This is a new concept steamboat, where the traditional steamboat is replaced by a claypot, and the "soup stock" is replaced with porridge. Other than this replacement, don't expect a different experience. I find the porridge rather tasty, although everyone commented that it is too salty.

Had dinner with BT, EG, and A at My Humble House (2-27 Espalande Mall, 8 Raffles Avenue, Singapore 039802). This is one of the higher-end restaurants belonging to the Tung Lok Group. For simplicity, we took one of the set dinners, which I find to be rather over-priced at S$68 per person for the amount and type of food. If it is value you are looking for, skip this restaurant!

Had dinner with BS, SM, HG, WG, and EG at Gang Gang Sulai (65 Jalan Cideng Timur, Jakarta 10250O, Indonesia). This is a Korean barbecue restaurant. We ordered ginseng leaf as an appetizer, which is very good. The leaves are quick-boiled and tossed in a slightly sweet light soya sauce with sesame seeds. We had salmon, ox tongue, beef ribs, and several different cuts of beef for barbecue. OK food, but not spectacular.

Just got back from a business trip to Jakarta.

Had dinner with BZ, EG, and WG at B.A.T.S. (Shangri-La Hotel, Jakarta, Indonesia). This is a restaurant cum bar serving American food. I had a beef tenderloin with red wine source, which is quite good, although nothing to shout about. EG had ribs, which he commented to be not as good as Tony Roma's.

This place is frequented by the expatriat community in Jakarta.

Had dinner with family at Market Cafe (Swissôtel, Singapore) two weekends ago. Dinner is served buffet style with a mainly peranakan theme. The food here is very amateurish. Not befitting of a 5-star hotel. Take the "kueh pi ti" for example. You are supposed to fill it up with turnip, add prawns and ground peanuts on it. However, there is no prawns or ground peanuts available. I told one of the chef there and he just shrug it off, simply replying their version has no prawns! What a let-down.

Had dinner with family at Prego (Swissôtel, Singapore) last weekend. I had dined there previously with rather good experience (see my review here). My experience there this time is disastrous.

The restaurant was promoting an "Experience Veneta" fair. So instead of ordering something from their usual menu, I decided to try something off their Veneta menu. I ordered the gnocci, which turned out to be the worst gnocci I have eaten in my entire life! First, there is no effort put into making the gnocci, it is simply pea-size dumplings, instead of the gnocci that was made by rolling on the back of the fork. The texture was too sticky, and sticks on the gums -- a result of being over cooked. And further more, there was little scallops in the scallop source.

Service was rude and inattentive. The cups were not filled, and the waiter looked unhappy when we asked for more bread.

Had lunch last week with FE at Saint Pierre The Restaurant (3 Magazine Road, #01-01 Central Mall, Singapore 059570). I ordered the foie gras and lemon sole. The foie gras is a tat too rare, but is otherwise nice. The lemon sole is too small in portion and failed to impress. The service is friendly though. I prefer Les Saisons (see my review here) to Saint Pierre.

Had lunch with YW and E at Ding Tai Fung (Junction 8, Bishan, Singapore) two weeks ago. Had the crab meat xiao long bao and pork rib noodles. The noodles were ordinary but I liked the crab meat xiao long bao. It was the first time I can taste crab in all the claimed crab meat xiao long bao I had.

Had alumni lunch at Indochine Waterfront (1 Empress Place, #01-03, Singapore) yesterday with visiting UW Math Dean Tom Coleman. It was great to meet friends that I haven't seen for sometime and to make new connections. But the food was something else .. ordinary .. very ordinary. We left it to the recommendation of the captain, which brought us a appetizer platter, deep fried softshell crab, pepper beef, seafood curry, and stirfried vegetables. I couldn't say much more about the food except that it did not impress. We felt we would have better spent our money at the nearby Fullerton Hotel.

Dad saw a review of Dempsey's Hut (130E Minden Road, Singapore) in the papers and decided to check it out, so we went for lunch there last Saturday afternoon. I must say this is an over-rated place both for its ambience, food, and service.

Dempsey's Hut is located behind what used to be the old club house for the Tanglin Golf Course. As the area is undergoing some major construction, the air is extremely dusty. All the tables and chairs are dusty and one wonders about the amount of microparticles that are landing in whatever you are eating. My car was coated in a layer of dust after only 1 hour of lunch.

We ordered the supposedly famous curry chicken with french loaf. The amount was miserable for what they charge -- S$8.50 per bowl. You can get them for less than half the price at hawker centres! The bread was thin and breaks easily, making it difficult to dip into the curry.

Service was very unprofessional and slow. The served curry with plates. When I asked them for bowls, they claimed they don't have any. But I saw two diners drinking soup out of soup bowls! Only when I insisted did they go get the soup bowls, and very reluctantly. On the way to bringing us the soup bowls, the waitress was playing with another colleague, who seemed like the boss. And this was when we were all waiting for the bowls to start eating! Best part is, Dempsey's Hut had the cheek to charge us 10% service charge for non-existent service!

My verdict: Avoid this place at all cost.

Celebrated XQ's birthday over dinner at Equinox The Restaurant (Swissôtel The Stamford, 2 Stamford Road, Singapore 178882) two days ago. There was some mismanagement of our reservation. I was told over the phone that I would have a table by the window at 8:30pm. But when we reached the restaurant, we were told that the restaurant cannot guarantee a window table by 8:30pm. I was mad of course, but fortunatley we did get one at the end.

The menu is more limited than I expected. We started with some cocktails. For dinner, XQ had a pumpkin puree soup and a yuzu marinated cod, while I had a grilled rib eye. The food is generally quite good, but the view stole the show. The night view of Singapore from the top of Swissotel was simply spectacular.

A surprise came at the end of our dinner when the waiter brought a complimentary birthday cake and took a polaroid picture of us.

The price per person is about S$100.

Had dinner with SM at Sushi Jiro (695 East Coast Road, Singapore 459059) last week. I picked this Japanese restaurant for two reasons: 1) SM was rushing for his flight back to Jakarta so it is better to avoid getting into the traffic jam on East Coast Parkway by eating nearer the airport, and 2) I wanted to try a new restaurant.

We had mixed sashimi, grilled cod, softshell crab handroll, california roll, and fried chicken. I find the food only average although the price is very high (more expensive that what some hotel restaurants charge). On the evening we were there, we were the only ones in the entire restaurant. This shows how popular the restaurant is.

I recommend giving this place a miss, on their high price-to-value ratio. There are other better Japanese restaurants around to spend your money on!

Our dinner for two came to S$123.

Celebrated brother-in-law's birthday over dinner at the Bar & Billiard Room (Raffles Hotel, Singapore). Dinner was buffet style, with an international spread. The food is of high quality, serving Alaskan crabs, foie gras, oysters, prawns, and sashimi, among others. Dessert is also excellent. I like the food quite a bit. The only dissappointment came from missing labels on the food items, which makes it sometimes rather misleading and confusing. For example, I couldn't tell if some dishes were beef or lamb or pork. What one chef told me was turkey turned out to be chicken!

Service was friendly and very prompt.

The price per person is S$50.

AR and his wife invited XQ and myself to dinner at Nadaman (Shangri-La Hotel, 22 Orange Grove Road, Singapore 258350). This is a Japanese restaurant that is part of a renowned chain of fine restaurants with 150 years of culinary tradition.

CR and XQ had the Kobe beef sukiyaki and AR and I had Kobe beef teppanyaki. We also had lobster sashimi to share. The lobster sashimi was a little too coarse in cut. We would have preferred them to slice the lobster tail into smaller pieces. The Kobe beef sukiyaki was quite tasty but AR and I realized through our teppanyaki that the beef didn't seem to be Kobe. The marbling just wasn't right. It was later when we questioned the captain that he admitted that it wasn't Kobe beef, but Australian beef. He explained that Nadaman had stopped importing Kobe beef due to the recent episode of mad cow disease in Japan. I felt cheated since the price they charge was at the Kobe beef level and not at the Australian beef level. Otherwise, it was a perfect evening. The company was excellent with fine food and wine (I brought along a 95-pointer 1997 Italian Brunello di Montalcino). We enjoyed our evening tremendously.

This is an expensive restaurant, without questioned. Our dinner for four cost more than S$900.

Had dinner with family at Imperial Treasure Nan Bei Resautrant (391 Orchard Rd, #05-12 Ngee Ann City, Singapore) last night. This restaurant serves Shanghainese and Catonese cuisine. We had charcoal grilled pork neck, sliced fish steamed in chinese wine, braised sea cucumber, eggplant and tofu claypot, prawns in two flavours, crispy roast chicken, grass carp and radish soup, and seafood fried rice. I find the food not as nice compared to Hu Cui.

We were also dissapointed in that we were informed that two of the items we wanted were not available after some 15 minutes.

Cost per person is about S$30.

Had dinner with family at My Choice Chinese Cuisine (419 River Valley Road, Singapore 248318) last Saturday. YM had told me he liked this restaurant and asked me to try it. So we made a last minute reservation and showed up.

The menu at My Choice reminded me of Crystal Jade but with a more refined touch. We ordered the following items:

1) Spinach beancurd
2) Roast Chicken
3) Braised whole sea cucumber
4) Grilled soft rib bone
5) Seafood noodles
6) Crab bee hoon
7) Deep fried prawns with wasabi sauce

All the dishes we ordered were above average. The only disappointment came from the grilled soft rib bone which my sister found to be too "porky" in flavour. I especially like the crab bee hoon. Accompanying our dinner is a bottle of Mt Billy 2000 Antiquity Shiraz (reviewed here). Wonderful!

Had coffee and dessert with XQ and HS yesterday at Baker's Inn (Plaza Indonesia EX, Jakarta, Indonesia). The range of cakes the serve are exactly the same as that you get in Singapore but the outlet at Plaza Indonesia EX is substantially smaller in space than any here in Singapore. Environment is too smoky for my liking. Service is also slow. I had almost finished my cake when my espresso arrived.

Had lunch with XQ and HS this afternoon at Shabu Shabu House (Plaza Indonesia EX, Jakarta, Indonesia). In addition to shabu-shabu, Shabu Shabu House also serves sukiyaki and a variety of Japanese food such as teriyaki meat dishes and tempura. The dishes are localized. I had a double order of US beef for shabu-shabu and XQ had seafood shabu-shabu which came with salmon, oysters, and prawns. The secret of shabu-shabu is all in the sauce. Shabu Shabu House has an interesting ponzu sauce, but their sesame sauce is not as good as that of Goku.

The damage for the three of us came up to about Rp450,000.