Sunday, May 4, 2008

5 toasts to a happy birthday.

just last fri, my mates and i were out to celebrate lyn's birthday. as we were at robertson walk, the star-of-the-night decided to go for italian fare, so we popped by at cugini.



the restaurant was quiet, apart from us, there's only one couple and another group. however, there were also 2 or 3 groups of people drinking outside the restaurant. just some pictos to fill you in how it looks like inside.



first up, the chef served us this pasta, which jac felt that it was floury-except this is with cheese as its filling. as for the mushroom, all of us couldnt appreciate it; xw was the only one who managed to finish it.



then the main courses came, i had some pasta with bacon

i thought it was pretty chinese, salty and all - too salty to our liking. as you chew, you realize there's this stinging effect on the tongue, and i cant quite figure whether it's the spice or the salt that's the cause of it.

xw also had some pasta.

her pasta was in the form of wontons. i cant quite remember what filling it has though, some kind of meat.

the rest had some tuna.

for someone like me who hates tuna to the core, this was really good stuff, especially since i find myself picking more from their plates.

how can birthdays be complete without cakes? so for deserts, we first had chocolate cake.

when the server told us that it would take 20min to bake the cake, all of us expected a bigger cake. but nonetheless, the cake was scrumptious! when you cut through the cake, you can see the hot chocolate oozing out, and as you put the cake into your mouth, it was almost heavenly.




not satisfied by that small little cake, lyn and i went to order tiramisu.

sad to say, it wasnt that great. especially after the delicious choc cake we had.

from the photos, it's easy to tell that the portions are very small. quoting jenny, "this is almost like exquisite food." the bill (4 mains plus 2 desserts) came up to almost $200 - citi and uob cardmembers would be entitled to 15% discount. as much as we enjoy the warm hospitality by the female hostess of cugini, i highly doubt that ill come by here, maybe my palettes for italian fare has been accustomed by the sillyporeans remake version.

cugini restaurant & lounge bar
11 unity street
#01-27/28 robertson walk
singapore 237995

opening hours:
(restaurant)
lunch: 11.30am to 2pm daily
dinner: 6pm - 1030pm daily

once again, happy bday lynette and may all your wishes come true!
Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

*credits to lyn for some of the pictos!*

-tfc-

Labels: ,

Thursday, May 1, 2008

out from period dramas.

on the eve of labour day, joy and jo suggested that we go back to the old chinese days and decided to head dian xiao er for dinner. according to joy, dian xiao er is famous for its duck.


being the first one to reach, joy called everyone up, just cos we missed our queue number!


the late(st)comer! (and jo looks really happy that bruce finally reached!)


the food looks really nice...

and bruce looks ready to attack, full force!

VERDICT!
we had the jia-chang-bian-fan set, that has about 8 dishes (including the white rice, dessert and soup) for 4 pax, and we ordered an extra plate of fried rice, just to try it out. the three of them love the food, but as for myself, i found it too salty to my liking. i guess it could also be a matter of preference, since im more into bland food lately. the portions were good, just nice for the 4 of us, as we managed to CLEAR the plates.

as for the service. i thought it's pretty good. hearing the accent of the servers, i would assume that most of them came from northern parts of china. after being in bj 3 months, i can safely assure you that the service we got were way better than those we recvd there. though it's kinda jarring to the ears to have the server apologising whenever she brings the dish to our table. oh boy, the speed at each dish was served was astoundingly fast!

the interior design of dian xiao er mimics those of ke zhan - those eating places you watch from the period dramas. it was interesting that even the concept of the menu follows through, since it was in the form of mi ji - the manuals that were supposedly the answer to the invincible swordplay. and in $$$ sense, the price was also alright since our bill came up to about 100bucks.



fyi, the dian xiao er that we went to was located at Marina Square #02-203/204.

opening hours:
11.30am-2.30pm daily
5.30pm-9.30pm daily

next up, the gluttons were just being greedy and decided to go for desserts, after joy started chanting for apple struddel - that woman claims that swensens serves the best apple struddel in sg. ha, but we settled for andersen's instead!

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us
bruce got so engrossed into playing tourist and his iphone - anything but joy.

so that woman got bored...


and i played along with her.


till jo finally came into the picture.


before i get too carried away, check out our desserts!


jo and i demonstrate the steps to eating ice-cream!







so tell us, who's the better demonstrator?

okay, let's play it fair lest anyone gets intimidated by jo's stern expression!

now, who's the better demonstrator?

- tfc-
*credits to jo for some of the pictos!*

Labels: ,